Seven the hard way.

Edward Martin is clearly one of the best reporters and writers working in business journals today. His work, in fact, is comparable to the top business writing being done anywhere."

That's what judges of the Association of Area Business Publications Editorial Excellence Awards had to say July 12 when they awarded him the gold prize for best body of work by a single reporter--for the second year in a row. They also dubbed BUSINESS NORTH CAROLINA the nation's third-best regional business magazine, calling us "straight-forward and accessible." In all, we won seven prizes, the most we've ever won.

But back to the best-best. The judges, University of Missouri journalism faculty, explained Ed's gift this way: "His biggest talent? Telling a story. The concept sounds simple, but all writers--and especially business writers--seem to have a great trouble doing it. Martin knows reporting is the key to good storytelling and brings an intense level of investigation to stories ranging from how Midway Airlines is trying to survive in a struggling market to how a leading cancer surgeon heals the sick to how moonshiners continue to succeed."

It was one of three gold prizes Ed won in the magazine category. Another, best personality profile--again repeating himself--was for the piece on Dr. Douglas Tyler (July 2002) mentioned above. "Nicely constructed and detailed, this piece on a cancer surgeon is neither too laudatory nor too depressing. His world is one of contrasts, and so is the story. It presents the highs and the lows with equal power."

Ed's third top prize was best feature for "Abandon Ship" (October): "In exquisite chronological detail, this story reported the struggle undertaken by former Arthur Andersen LLP partners to rescue their business and their reputations in the aftermath of the firm's implosion following Enron's demise. The in-depth reporting yielded important and insightful facts that gave readers a great understanding of the local story behind these complex business debacles."

Free-lancer George Breisacher's take on the piece won a bronze prize for best magazine cover. "The artist chose an elegant and ingenious solution with the illustration. As the saying goes, the devil is in the details, and this cover shows how much attention was paid to every last thing: the water being formed out of dollars, the ship being named 'Andersen.'" In the open category, which includes newspapers as well as magazines, we also won bronze prizes for:

* Explanatory journalism: Contributing Editor Irwin Speizer's "excellent account of the failed efforts to keep the Hornets in Charlotte [September] ... penetrates the secretive world of back-room deals and tells a rich story about how a rift between the NBA team owners and city power brokers doomed the drive."

* Headlines: "Good headline writing can mean walking the line between just right and just awful. The headline writer struck the right balance with headlines such as 'Naked Ambition,' the story of a businessman who launched allnudesports.com--and failed, and 'Non Prophet,' the story of how 'true believer Jim Blaine' built the nation's second-largest credit union."

David Kinney [e-mail]