Hawaii Business Wins 23 Journalism Awards

The judges honored our reporting on Lahaina’s recovery, housing, immigration, workplace culture and other issues that shaped Hawaiʻi in 2025. We also won for our design, digital work, illustrations and photography.

Hawaii Business Magazine earned 23 statewide honors Wednesday – including nine first-place prizes – at the annual awards dinner for the Hawai‘i chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. In fact, Hawaii Business won more first-place awards and total awards than any other media organization.

Earlier this year, Hawaii Business was named the Best Magazine by the national Alliance of Area Business Publishers, one of six national honors recognizing the magazine’s journalism, design and digital work. It was the fifth time that Hawaii Business had won the national award for best regional business magazine award in nine years.

Both the state and national awards handed out this year recognize work published during 2025. The state contest was judged by journalists from the San Diego and East Tennessee chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Managing Editor Ken Wills won first place in Government Reporting for “He Served His Country. His Country Ordered Him to Leave” and first place for Business Reporting for “Matson Keeps Hawai‘i Well-Stocked.”

In the first story, about Purple Heart Army veteran Sae Joon Park, the judges said, “Wills takes us behind the scenes as a crisis unfolds.”

Wills also won three third-place awards: His story “Kaua‘i Pediatrician Who Warned About One Toxic Pesticide Sees a Bigger Threat” won third in both Government Reporting and Science Reporting. He also won third place for Body of Work by a Single Writer.

Senior contributing writer Cynthia Wessendorf received first place in Feature Writing/Long Form for “Lahaina Is Rising, Slowly,” a deeply reported look at the community’s recovery from the 2023 wildfires. The judges called it “superb community journalism,” praising its “crisp writing, beautiful photographs and compelling human-centered storytelling.”

Wessendorf also won second place in the prestigious A-Mark Prize for Investigative Reporting for her article “Bad Jobs,“ which investigated the ways many women in Hawaiʻi still encounter sexual harassment, discrimination, unequal treatment and other toxic workplace practices.

“(It’s) a powerful wake-up call to the state’s business community about what they may be doing wrong, and how supporting women can create success,“ the judges said.

The magazine also captured first place for Overall Page Design, with judges praising Art Director Jeff Sanner’s work for its range, creativity and visual storytelling. Sanner also won first place for Magazine Cover for the June issue, “Likes, Follows and Paychecks,” about how local social media influencers earn a living or simply cover expenses.

He also won first place for Editorial Cartoon/Illustration for the illustrations accompanying a report in the February issue called “Hawai‘i’s Housing Crisis Was Decades in the Making.”

That housing report earned Contributing Writer Kathryn Drury Wagner first place for Best Explanatory Journalism. In fact, Hawaii Business Magazine won first place in the Special Section category for the section in the February 2025 issue marking the magazine’s 70th Anniversary – a package that included important reporting like Wagner’s housing crisis story.

Hawaii Business won a total of three awards for the online I.C.E. Map – a collaboration by Wills and Hawaii Business’ digital team of Randall Libramonte and Marianne Leano – which crowdsourced reports on raids by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The map won first place for Informational Graphic and two second place awards, in Data Journalism and Multimedia Presentation.

The magazine also earned eight other awards:

• Staff writer Ryann Noelani Coules won two second-place prizes: in Feature Writing/Long Form for “I Donated a Kidney to a Stranger – and Maybe You Should Too” and in Business Reporting for “Not Grown in Hawai‘i.”
• The magazine won second place in Industry or Trade Reporting for five stories on real estate and land issues by Wagner, Coules, Perry Arrasmith and Shelby Mattos.
• Second place in Feature Writing/Short Form went to Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Ablan for her story, “UH President Wendy Hensel on Listening, Innovating and Reimagining the Classroom.”
• Petranik’s collaboration with Sanner on the fall 2025 BOSS Survey won second place in Informational Graphics,
• Contributing Writer Ann Auman won third place in Best Explanatory Journalism for her two-part report on “AI in Education.”
• Third place in Feature Photography/Videography went to Staff Photographer Aaron Yoshino’s photo essay for the Matson report.
• And in a team effort, we won third place for headline writing.

The evening also highlighted the accomplishments of Hawaii Business’ current SPJ summer intern, Kiani Vidaurri, who earned three student journalism awards while attending the University of Hawai‘i: second place in both Investigative Journalism and in Sports Journalism, and third in Feature Journalism. Overall, UH students won 24 awards, all in categories only open to students.