Citi congratulates Marc Moncrief, this year's overall winner of the 2008 Citi Journalism Awards for Excellence. Marc will participate on a ten-day study tour in New York with other winning journalists from around the world, hosted by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism.

This year's finalists and category winners include:

• Marc Moncrief winner Financial Markets category for his series in The Age "That Falling Feeling" published in March 2007, dealing with that new language of CDOs and the link with the sub-prime crisis in the US; and "When California Quakes Beaumaris Shudders" published in August 2007 and looking at the implications of the "crisis" on the average person.
  
  
• Michael Evans winner of the General Business category for his series of articles on the planned management buy-out of Alinta, "Management cherry-picking Alinta" , "Macquarie Bank, you're dumped!" and "Conduct unbecoming" published in The Sydney Morning Herald in January 2007.
  
  
• Stephen Long winner Broadcast Media for his broadcasts "Predicting the Credit Crash" aired on Lateline, ABC Radio and World Today in June & December 2007.
  
  
• Marc Moncrief winner The Economy for his articles that took the topic of the forthcoming federal election, the state of the economy, and interest rate rises, and the impact of all of those on the everyday person, "It's the Mortgage, Stupid"; and "Will He Blow It?" published in The Age in March & April 2007.
  
  
• Caroline Courtney winner of the Personal Finance category for her article "Your Money or Your Life" published in North & South Magazine in New Zealand in September 2007.

Special commendation was also given to Narelle Hooper for her article "AMP Odyssey" on the transformation of AMP under Andrew Mohl, published in Boss Magazine in September 2007.

When the Awards where established by Citi 26 years ago, they were designed to provide journalists in developing markets with the opportunity to gain academic and business insight into the US financial system. By 1993, when the awards were introduced into Australia they had evolved. As a highly developed, albeit small market, the awards were designed to acknowledge the critical role of the media in Australian business. The intent has always been to encourage and recognise excellence in business and finance reporting.

The integrity and independence of the judging panel, which represents a wide range of Australian and New Zealand business, academic and community sectors, as well as the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in New York, is the very foundation of the awards.

The judging panel were impressed by the stature of submissions this year, eighty-seven entries in all. The award is open to print and broadcast journalists from Australia and New Zealand. Journalists are invited to submit entries in five categories: - general business, financial markets, personal finance, the economy, and broadcast business media.

First prize, which is chosen from the five category winners, is a 10-day study tour hosted by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Many previous winners consider the study tour to be a career enhancing experience, having participated in sessions with leading Columbia University faculty members, engaged in discussions with senior academics and policy-makers, and visited key financial institutions and US Government Departments such as the New York Stock Exchange, the World Bank, the IMF, Bloomberg and the Federal Reserve Bank.