Senior Theo Keith to Receive a SABEW ‘Best in Business’ Award

Columbia, Mo. (March 28, 2011) — The Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) will honor a Missouri School of Journalism senior with a “Best in Business” award during the group’s April 7-9 annual convention in Dallas. The competition honors excellence in business and financial journalism across all news platforms.

Theo Keith
Theo Keith

Theo Keith won in the professional publication category for a story he wrote while interning last summer at the Detroit bureau of Bloomberg News. The winning entry was titled “Autoworkers Adjust to Job Banks’ End as GM, Ford Seek to Rebound.” Keith receives an all-expense-paid trip to Dallas to accept his award.

His award was one of 23 won by the Bloomberg News family of publications, the most won by any news organization. Overall, there were 202 winners across 79 categories, from among 904 entries received.

Keith’s story focused on how autoworkers were now struggling to make ends meet after the loss of the jobs bank, which guaranteed their pay when they had been laid off while a factory was being revamped for a new model.

Keith wrote, “The jobs bank, which had a combined 25,000 Ford, GM and Chrysler workers at its peak in the early 1990s, was originally designed to retain trained workers who were temporarily displaced by productivity or business cycles. The program later became a symbol of the benefits union workers received as the U.S. government debated approving funds to save the industry.”

The judges praised Keith’s story: “This story did a very good job of explaining a complex subject (job bank) and putting a face on the auto sector’s troubles. Theo Keith does a nice job of taking a complicated, controversial issue and explaining what it means to readers. This story is a great mix of real voices, industry analysis and expert opinion. It is nicely sourced and well written, with strong details.”

“I’m honored to win the award for reporting on a major issue in Detroit,” said Keith. “It’s no secret that I hope to return to the Motor City during my career to report on the news and people that matter so much to me.”

Keith is a multimedia reporter who specializes in business, political and breaking news coverage. He is currently the statehouse reporter for KOMU-TV and KMOX Radio. Keith has served as an intern at Fox News Channel‘s “Your World with Neil Cavuto” and The Saginaw (Mich.) News in addition to Bloomberg News. He will graduate from the University of Missouri in May with degrees in journalism and political science.

In 2007, Keith joined the School as a Walter Williams Scholar, a group of elite freshmen with a score of 33 or higher on the ACT (1440 or higher on the SAT).

Updated: May 21, 2020

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