L.A. Times’ Kimi Yoshino to Receive Press Club Award

Los Angeles Times Business Editor Kimi Yoshino has been named the Los Angeles Press Club’s 2018 Presidents Awardee for Impact on Media.

Kimi Yoshino

“Kimi represents the best of what we as journalists strive to do every day,” said Press Club President Chris Palmeri, bureau chief at Bloomberg Los Angeles. “She tackles tough stories, whether it be corrupt officials in the city of Bell or municipal tax breaks for the richest entertainment company in the world. She has inspired her team to write an open letter in her defense to their boss. That’s why we’re so happy to have her accept this award,”

The Presidents Award will be presented at the 60th SoCal Journalism Awards Gala on Sunday, June 24, at the Biltmore Millennium Hotel in Downtown L.A.

“I’m humbled and honored to receive this award from the Los Angeles Press Club,” said Yoshino. “Like many of my colleagues at The L.A. Times, I am looking forward to putting a tumultuous period behind us as we work with our new owner to maintain our high journalistic standards and strengthen our voice covering California and the West.”

Yoshino oversees an award-winning staff of some 30 reporters and editors covering business news and the entertainment industry.

Since she started at **The Times** in 2000, she has helped guide reporting on the Bell corruption scandal, winning the 2011 Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service. She was a morning assignment editor in Metro and helped establish L.A. Now, The Times’ most-read blog and go-to source for reliable, real-time coverage of the biggest stories in Southern California.

As business editor, Yoshino rebuilt and re-energized the staff and helped re-launch the section with a greater focus on California business coverage. For two years in a row, the section was recognized with the highest general excellence award by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW). And this year, it brought home 11 SABEW honors – more than any other news outlet.

Coverage highlights include Hollywood scandals in the aftermath of Harvey Weinstein, how immigration restrictions and labor shortages are remaking California agriculture, and eye-opening explanatory journalism on how the rise of alternative energy has led California regulators to rethink their reliance on natural gas.

Before her editing stints, she was a reporter for Metro and Business – and also served a couple reporting rotations in The Times’ Baghdad bureau, where she met her future husband.

In addition to Yoshino, Lester Holt, anchor of “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and “Dateline NBC,” will receive the Joseph M Quinn for Lifetime Achievement. The Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism and the Bill Rosendahl Public Service Award will also be presented. More than 500 journalists and media executives will attend this prestigious event.

Proceeds from the gala are the largest source of income for the Los Angeles Press Club, a 501(c)3 that speaks for journalists across all media platforms. All contributions are tax-deductible.

For more information about this event or to sponsor, advertise or buy tickets, go to www.LApressclub.org or contact Executive Director Diana Ljungaeus at (310) 210-1860 or Diana-AT-LApressclub.org.

The LAPC is one of the oldest and most respected journalist organizations in the nation with a storied history of honoring the most celebrated reporters of the past century. In recent years, the club has continued to uphold its tradition of acknowledging excellence in spite of the fact that journalism itself has struggled in the face of ever-declining budgets.