Times Business Writers Win John Hancock Award

A team of Los Angeles Times business writers who covered the BankAmerica-Security Pacific merger won a top prize in the 25th annual Awards for Excellence in Business and Financial Journalism competition sponsored by John Hancock Financial Services.

The team--Martha Groves, Victor F. Zonana, Kathy M. Kristof, Bruce Horovitz, Susan Moffat, Dan Akst and Tom Furlong--won in the deadline news category for articles published the day after the announcement of the merger, which created the second-largest U.S. bank, with assets of $190 billion.

The award comes with a $5,000 prize. It was the fourth time that The Times has been an Awards for Excellence recipient.

Other winners included Jonathan Beaty and S. C. Gwynne of Time Magazine; Alan Murray of the Wall Street Journal; a team of reporters from the Boston Globe; Mike Casey and Russell Carollo of the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News; Eric Blom of the Portland (Me.) Press Herald; Jane Bryant Quinn of Newsweek, and Allan Sloan of Newsday, whose “Deals” column appears in The Times on Sunday.