CoStar News reporter Linda Moss won first place in a journalism contest for her coverage of the intersection between some of the nation’s tightest liquor laws and development.
Moss topped the Best Business/Consumer category in the 2025 Excellence in Journalism Awards from the New Jersey Society of Professional Journalists with a story examining how the regulation of liquor can affect commercial property, business interests and what can be involved in making changes.
In “Here's How Some of the Nation’s Tightest Liquor License Laws Were Eased to Spur Development,” published Jan. 17, 2024, Moss, based in Iselin, New Jersey, explored a new law, a compromise, that boosted the number of available liquor licenses statewide, but that real estate development supporters said failed to adequately spur projects.
Moss analyzed how that behind-the-scenes struggle was affecting development throughout New Jersey and its ripple effects across the United States.
The contest winners were selected by outside judges. Entrants included major news organizations such as the New York Times and ABC News.
CoStar News is an international news organization that specializes in the coverage of commercial real estate, examining economic and property implications of events across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. CoStar News is published by CoStar Group, the largest provider of commercial real estate information.