Banking/Finance
Large division
Winner – International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in collaboration with The New York Times and Toronto Star; The Coin Laundry
In a category that contained several strong contenders, the judges felt The Coin Laundry stood out for the depth of its reporting, which combined an impressive level of detail and compelling human stories from multiple countries. Cryptocurrency has gotten a lot of news coverage in recent years. But these stories uncovered lesser-known angles of the topic, including the important role that crypto-to-cash operations play in facilitating the anonymity that enables crypto fraud and crime. The stories also made good use of a variety of visuals that provided information without overwhelming the reader.
Honorable Mention – The Wall Street Journal; The AI Investment Frenzy
The judges gave the nod to this story because it tackled a timely and important topic that is of high interest to not just financiers and business leaders but to the general public. The story highlighted a diversity of sources, from the firms investing in multibillion-dollar data center projects to small-town North Dakota, where one of these projects is under construction. The story addresses not just the frenzy of investment into artificial intelligence, but the possibility that the activity represents an economic bubble that will have widespread economic effects if it pops.
Medium division
Winner – Barron’s; Inside JPMorgan Chase
It’s obvious how much work went into this reporting. Amazing that Rebecca was able to get a recording of Dimon’s town hall meeting and the judges found it impressive that the second article referenced speaking to 20 current and/or ex-employees. Overall solid reporting, great sourcing and perseverance. The Inside JPMorgan Chase headline seemed quite appropriate because of the number of sources and the information provided made it seem as if she were an insider.
Small division
Winner – Dallas Business Journal; Will Y’all Street be for all?
Holden Wilen and Leonardo Rosas’s reporting delivers a thorough and meticulously researched look into the rough underbelly of Dallas’s finance and development boom. The city’s neglect of one underserved part of town has consequences for the entire region, which this reporting illustrated through a combination of eye-opening statistics, interviews with local business owners and incisive analysis. This feature is timely, relevant, and provides a clear impact for the community it serves.
Best Range of Work
Large division
Winner – The Washington Post; The federal government whisperer
Carving out a new beat as the Washington Post’s de-facto “federal government whisperer,” Hannah Natanson spent the year connecting with federal workers during President Trump’s attempt to overhaul — and cut— the civil service.
Through posting her personal contact information on a Reddit forum, she connected with more than 1,100 new sources and kept up conversations with many of them for weeks or months at a time. The sourcing resulted in an impressive body of work, both exclusive scoops and hard-hitting features. Natanson’s source building and reporting helped hold the government accountable as the Trump administration pushed for sweeping changes in the federal workforce.
Honorable Mention – The New York Times; David Yaffe-Bellany
David Yaffe-Bellany tackled a complex and wonky topic – cryptocurrencies – with aplomb, telling the story of the growing, but often derided asset class through a political, societal, and financial lens.
Yaffe-Bellany’s reporting serves as a stark reminder that we need guardrails around digital currencies and their infrastructure to protect the American people, who are largely left out of policy discussions that will ultimately affect them as crypto becomes entrenched in mainstream finance.
Medium division
Winner – The Seattle Times; Jessica Fu’s wide-ranging coverage of affordability and the cost of living crisis in Seattle
Jessica Fu showed impressive range and brought a strong watchdog perspective to her unique, comprehensive coverage of the affordability crisis through a Seattle lens. She humanized the fallout of massive layoffs at Amazon and Microsoft, skeptically reexamined the efficacy of three decades of tax breaks for tech giants, and artfully explained the rising costs of living on a houseboat.
Small division
Winner – Crain’s Detroit Business; Dustin Walsh
Dustin Walsh has two very distinct beats: health care and Michigan’s cannabis industry. How he tells stories for both is a lesson in versatility. He plunges into the lives of his characters and comes out with stories that you didn’t even realize you were curious about until you read them, including Michigan’s surrogacy policy and how the little town of New Buffalo became Weed City, USA. It’s no wonder why his editors turn to him as their go-to for this rich kind of storytelling.
Honorable Mention – Crain’s New York Business; Aaron Elstein covers New York in Crain’s New York Business
Top-notch reporting by journalist Aaron Elstein, who punches above his weight with his thorough and well-written coverage of New York’s real estate market. His deep sourcing allows him to tackle his subjects with authority.
Breaking News
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg News; Manhattan Shooting
This was a breaking news story business journalists don’t often find themselves writing. What particularly stuck out about Bloomberg’s coverage was the speed with which the team was able to nail down the timeline of what happened, as well as the thoughtfulness that went into writing an obituary for Wesley LePatner, who was killed in the shooting.
Honorable Mention – Los Angeles Times; Paramount was poised to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. What went wrong?
The ability for this reporting to break down one of the biggest deal stories of the year so quickly was quite a feat. The core knowledge of the executives at these media companies added helpful context, and the sourcing was comprehensive and an example of how experienced reporters can quickly pull together a memorable account.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – Crain’s New York Business; Paramount Group CEO’s sneaky pay
The CEO of the New York real estate investment trust Paramount Group, Inc. was quietly lining his pockets with company money when Crain’s New York Business reporter Aaron Elstein came across damning footnotes in the company’s regulatory filings. Beginning in March, Elstein broke stories of millions in Paramount payments and perks to CEO Albert Behler — and six-figure design and other contracts to Behler’s wife.
It was high-impact coverage. In the wake of Elstein’s stories and mounting Wall Street dismay with Paramount’s flagging stock price and excessive largesse to Behler, Paramount hired bankers to explore “alternatives.” By December, Behler was forced out when shareholders approved a $1.6 billion sale of the company.
Honorable Mention – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; U.S. Steel/Nippon deal blocked by Biden
When President Joe Biden blocked the takeover of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff produced a strong package of stories on a tight deadline. Reporters provided balanced and in-depth analysis, delving deep into why some supported the deal while others were against it. The package included many voices and showed the real impact of the decision on workers, revealing their fears about the future. The stories provided important coverage on not only what the decision would mean for U.S. Steel workers, but its ripple effect on the local community, nearby businesses, and the region.
Commentary/Opinion
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg News; Xi’s World
A well reported, well written series that provides the reader with the historical and political context to understand U.S.-China relations from the Chinese point of view. There are few subjects of greater importance to the world than this one. Readers come away from the series much better informed.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; The Race to Dominate AI
A well written and smartly reported look at a couple of different sides of the AI race, diving into the costs for the creative community and the weaknesses of the European investment community in competing with US investors. Both are angles that we don’t see enough coverage of.
Medium division
Winner – The Guardian; The Ills of American Capitalism: Who the US economy leaves behind
Eduardo Porter of The Guardian won for three historically grounded, myth-busting articles that display conceptual originality and rigorous reporting–on the impact of the deportation of immigrants on the prospects for US economic growth; the unsustainability of the AI investment frenzy, its risks to the stock market, and its implications for the labor market; and the ironic contrast between an authoritarian China’s lifting millions out of poverty and the exacerbation of wealth inequality in the United States “by choice,” respectively.
Small division
Winner – Capital & Main; The Arc
Perspective. Empathy. Clarity. Erin Aubry Kaplan’s pieces for Capital + Main are standouts in all three of these dimensions. These columns not only show Ms. Kaplan’s journalistic talent but also show a knowledge of history and an understanding of how business, economics and politics shape a community.
Data Journalism
Large division
Winner – The Washington Post; Measuring the TikTok User Experience through Crowdsourced Data
A creative and novel approach to understanding one of the most opaque, yet most ubiquitous, algorithms that guides our attention and time. This series showed that a strong relationship with your audience can reveal data and insights typically unavailable to reporters, and the layout, graphics, and visuals made the story an absolute delight to read. It’s a wonderful example of how multiple streams of reporting — audience, data, visual, and narrative — can come together to produce something utterly unique.
Honorable Mention – Business Insider; The true cost of data centers
A remarkable feat of data gathering, analysis, and presentation. When paired with the stories of people living amid AI disruption, along with maps and audio, the true impact of data centers really comes alive. And it’s an incredible service to readers to map the vast and often hidden world of data centers, how they proliferate, and what the true cost might be.
Medium division
Winner – OCCRP in collaboration with The Guardian; Inside a Merciless Scam Empire
This piece uses scads of data gathered through meticulous investigative work that uncovered a wide-ranging, continent-spanning scam that bilked millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims. This kind of story requires hours and hours of digging by dedicated journalists — a skill artificial intelligence will never have. Kudos to the OCCRP team for a brilliant example of data-based reporting that doesn’t merely explain a trend; it sheds light on egregious predatory behavior.
Small division
Winner – World Trademark Review; Adult film company flooding US courts with copyright suits is now going after Meta
Shetty’s reporting stood out for its uniqueness. She made terrific use of data analysis and conveyed the findings in a manner that is easy to understand for the lay reader. Of particular interest was her finding that most of the targets are in areas where the median income exceeds $81,000. Great enterprise reporting!
Honorable Mention – Dallas Business Journal; Will Y’all Street be for all?
The reporters successfully exposed lending disparities within a small-business program in Dallas. Their findings were strengthened by interviews with business owners and experts who helped readers understand the true economic cost of the problem. It is a strong example of how data-driven journalism can uncover stories unlikely to emerge through other methods!
Economics
Large division
Winner – The Boston Globe; Squeezed: Why the middle class is disappearing in Massachusetts
Affordability has been the defining economic story since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, although illustrating this pervasive problem is easier said than done. The Boston Globe’s team accomplished just that with a beautifully written and masterfully crafted series of stories that are full of data, analysis and personality. Katie Johnson’s piece on Mary Greenaway was a joy, particularly how this triple-decker home became a character and backdrop for economic hardship. The visuals and graphics add an extra dimension of impact to this already well-reported series.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; The Deportation Economy
Bloomberg’s entry, The Deportation Economy, reveals how President Donald Trump’s immigration policies are creating operational risks for businesses across the United States. The series provides eye-opening accounts of the U.S. economy’s reliance on foreign-born workers, including undocumented laborers, and the collective price that Americans are paying because of controversial ICE raids and mass deportations. The reporting is compelling because it chronicles how that clash between populism and commercialism is playing out from Los Angeles’s garment hub to Texas dairy farms to Wall Street’s financial district.
Medium division
Winner – Nikkei Asia; Chinese companies find ways around U.S. trade barriers
Nikkei Asia stood out in this category with solid reporting and fascinating color on the strategies Chinese manufacturers, importers and logistics companies are employing to blunt the impact of the Trump Administration’s tariff policies. The reporting team – working from posts in New York, Hong Kong, Taipei, and Yiwu, China – unpacked complex patterns of tariff evasion that will undermine the administration’s goal of closing the U.S. trade deficit with China.
Honorable Mention – Houston Chronicle; The New Economics of Homebuilding: labor shortages, tariffs and uncertainty
Marissa Luck took on the difficult task of making a global story – tariffs – relevant to a local audience. For many Houstonians, the impact of policy decisions being made in Washington can be difficult to grasp. But a potential $12,000 increase in home prices is specific and relatable. Luck’s stories illustrate the important role of local media outlets in keeping average Americans informed.
Small division
Winner – Inside Climate News; Upcharge
This is an excellent package exploring the issues surrounding the boom in data centers with great detail and crystal-clear analysis. Very topical and the focus on a lack of transparency in the entry on Alabama data centers helps to raise the issue of accountability of public officials. It’s an essential piece that goes into the details of an issue that we all must be aware of, care for, and educate ourselves about. It is also very well executed and makes a problem that often feels distant, very real and relatable.
Energy/Sustainability/Climate Change
Large division
Winner – The New York Times; Exposed and Expendable
Moving, powerful investigative journalism that presents a perfect pairing of accountability and personal stories, showing what happens to the contract workers sent into towering wildfires with just a cloth bandana over their face, or no protection at all.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; Permian Toxic Water
This is expert-only subject matter made completely clear. Well-chosen and nicely developed characters helped make the common, but somewhat mysterious, process of fracking and injection wells real and relevant, and painfully illustrated what happens when something goes wrong. Props for explaining the Texas Railroad Commission while also not letting the board off the hook for decisions causing harm in the Permian. The video was a beautiful distillation of the reporting, and the infographics put an even finer point on the reporting.
Honorable Mention – Los Angeles Times; While LA Burned, SoCal Edison Profited
Strong watchdog work illuminating the shadowy work of the massive utility company Edison to potentially shift billions in wildfire costs to its customers.
Medium division
Winner – San Francisco Chronicle; Burned: A San Francisco Chronicle series on how the insurance industry has failed wildfire victims
With excruciating and exhaustive detail, the Chronicle’s series showed how the insurance industry’s continued, knowing reliance on a broken system that routinely underestimates the costs to rebuild fire victims’ homes is poised to devastate more American homeowners — and suffocate the economic recovery of entire communities — as climate change increases the frequency and severity of wildfires. The problem “jumps off the page,” according to one insurance lawyer quoted in the piece, and we could say the same about the Chronicle’s reporting and storytelling, which deftly weaves public records and agonizing private recollections together to reveal the nightmare hiding inside the American dream.
Honorable Mention – Miami Herald; Floods of Trouble
Flooding is a growing problem for South Florida, yet the full extent of the harm is hidden from view by lazy or reluctant government bureaucrats and the powerful real estate lobby. Following previous coverage that prompted the state legislature to mandate home sellers reveal any flood histories for the properties, the Herald tackled the topic again by uncovering flooding hotspots, and analyzing the impact on home values (apparently, so far, not much). By profiling some of these plaintiffs in disclosure lawsuits, the Herald put a human face on the toll that rising waters are taking in the area.
Honorable Mention – The Detroit News; Unplugged: EV Battery boom fizzles – Detroit News
Reporter Luke Ramseth tracks the rise and fall of the EV industry’s fortunes through the lens of the battery plants that were being developed to support the industry. His extensive reporting crosses roughly a dozen states in the Midwest and South to show the promise that once existed with a federal government that pumped billions into battery manufacturing plant proposals, and then how everything changed under a new administration that’s considerably less friendly to EVs. The judges were impressed with the scope of the reporting and writing.
Small division
Winner – Grist; The Disaster Economy
The judges were inspired by this submission. Grist’s entry stood above the others for its systemic reporting that is both broad and deep told through compelling narratives that ultimately resulted in action spurred by holding power to account. The service journalism component does not merely tell the public what happened to survivors and why, it empowers them to change things for the better using clear tools that navigate complex often opaque systems. The series changed lives, and that’s everything exceptional journalism should be.
Honorable Mention – Public Health Watch; Fumed
This entry is deeply compelling and multidimensional. It combines long-term beat reporting, original data analysis, narrative journalism, and audio storytelling in a way that feels both ambitious and grounded in community.
The best entries in this category often do more than document harm, they reveal systems. This one appears to do exactly that, connecting residents’ lived experience to regulatory failure, industrial expansion, and measurable public-health risk. Most importantly, the work appears to have had concrete civic impact, prompting Houston to change its permitting process.
Explanatory
Large division
Winner – Financial Times; How Saudi Arabia’s Neom Dream Unraveled
The Financial Times’ story, an examination of the ‘The Line,’ a multi-trillion-dollar vision for a future Saudia Arabian metropolis, had everything. It’s a character study of a Saudi prince. It’s a story of excess, told in approachable detail. It’s a tale of folly, a project borne from vision that was bigger than reality. Within that, Alison Killing’s reporting never lost sight of its purpose, which was to explain the complicated nature of this venture in the clearest possible way. Its use of scroll-over maps was remarkably effective in illustrating the scale and scope of The Line. It was the kind of story, one judge noted, that left you with so much knowledge that you couldn’t wait to talk about it at a dinner party.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg Green; Space Pollution
Not only does this Bloomberg Green story break down a complex topic into clear descriptions through words and visuals, it never loses sight of the “why now?” that makes a news story feel urgent and important. It outlines the fraught reality of a problem that’s planetary in scale and the difficulty in solving something with no clear jurisdictional oversight. Despite the vast scope of the issue, the authors successfully break it down and include the reader every step of the way.
Honorable Mention – The New York Times; The Data Center Surge
The New York Times’ “The Data Center Surge” is a fascinating look at how changes in microchip and data center design have powered the AI boom as well as how the resulting strains on electricity and water supplies are creating backlashes in their surrounding communities.
Medium division
Winner – Miami Herald; Floods of Trouble
This deeply reported series ticked all the boxes for excellent explanatory journalism: Personal stories, original data, voices of experts and impact. The entries – one of nine in the Floods of Trouble series – used compelling narrative journalism to expose a culture of secrecy in Southern Florida, where communities with a history of flooding are largely untracked.
Through character-driven storytelling, the reporter described how the lives of individuals who unwittingly bought homes in flood-prone neighborhoods have been upended. A new law in Florida now requires home sellers to disclose whether they are aware of any flood damage while they owned the property.
Honorable Mention – Chicago Tribune in collaboration with Illinois Answers Project; Inside Cook County’s Property Tax Debacle
This series is another example of stellar explanatory journalism. The reporters took a well-documented issue – investors driving up residential real estate prices – and examined it through the lens of property taxes. Through a combination of personal stories and data analysis, the reporters showed what’s behind Chicago’s poorest neighborhoods absorbing the steepest tax hikes. The series resonates well beyond the Windy City. Not only is home ownership already out of reach for many families in dozens of cities across North America, many existing homeowners could end up struggling to pay their property taxes.
Honorable Mention – Houston Chronicle; What the rise and fall of Houston powerhouse Sunnova Energy means for the future of U.S. solar
A solid piece of explanatory reporting. They got the former CEO on the record, with colorful quotes, which made the story more exclusive.
Small division
Winner – Suncoast Searchlight; Power and Profit
The Suncoast Searchlight provided a valuable public service with its exhaustively-researched and clearly-written series explaining the explosive growth and abusive practices of “Special Independent Districts” – quasi-government entities controlled by developers. This was a true explanatory series on an underreported subject that only briefly received national attention in 2022 when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized the special district that controls Disney World.
Poring through public records and bond documents, the Searchlight showed how developers were using these districts to finance projects and passing on long-term costs through fees that homeowners had no control over. The Searchlight also created a searchable database as a tool for the public to get information on these entities in the area around Sarasota, Florida.
The series showed how a small, local online publication can and did pull off a complex, sweeping business news story that would challenge even the largest of national media organizations.
Honorable Mention – Inside Climate News; Fracking Forever Problem
An in-depth report illustrating how the explosion in fracking for natural gas in Pennsylvania has overwhelmed local pollution controls and damaged public health.
Honorable Mention – Coinage; Inside Trump’s Plan to Launch a Digital Dollar at World Liberty Financial
Clearly explains President Trump’s conflict of interest in his crypto project World Liberty Financial and related digital stablecoin.
Feature
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg Businessweek; India’s Digital Dream, Hacked
This is a fantastic piece and an epic feat of reporting. The judges thought it was incredibly satisfying how all the threads come together at the end, given how the victim had climbed deeper into a pit of deception, furiously transferring every rupee of the fortune her ancestors built and saved over generations.
Honorable Mention – The Washington Post; Emily and the new American dream
What a bright, heartrending story! The author handles his subject’s manic drive for recognition with grace and without the condescension that sometimes creeps into coverage of influencers. A well-written, compelling indictment of the internet age. It’s a story about “monetization” that never uses that cursed word.
Honorable Mention – The New York Times; Inside the Murdochs’ Succession Drama
Highly detailed, thoroughly reported, on a topic that rivals any of our candidates for impact. Extremely timely and well crafted. The biggest surprise was how much “Succession” mirrored, and played in, the siblings’ plotting.
Medium division
Winner – Wired; The Worst 7 Years in Boeing’s History—and the Man Who Won’t Stop Fighting for Answers
Lauren Smiley takes you on an epic journey spanning continents and exploring spaces rarely seen by the public, from corporate offices to the halls of Congress. She masterfully weaves together the story of Boeing’s deadly failings with a psychological profile of the whistleblower who would not give up. Her work raises important questions while telling an incredible tale, everything business feature writing should be.
Honorable Mention – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; The Pulse of Pittsburgh: 24 Hours Downtown
An extraordinary telling of what happens on an ordinary day in downtown Pittsburgh. The Post-Gazette put together a beautiful package of photo, video and text to immerse readers in the fabric of their city. The piece calls attention to larger issues facing downtown without coming across as heavy-handed or preachy. This is what local newspapers are designed to do and why it is vital that they continue to operate.
Small division
Winner – Chicago Booth Review; The surreal economics of the contemporary-art market
Lots of explainers tell you why or how something works. It’s a lot rarer, and harder, to pull off an explainer of how something doesn’t work. This one pulls off that feat with an unusual but engaging writing style, aided by excellent graphics.
Honorable Mention – STAT; How the CRISPR Boom Went Bust
Extensively researched with outstanding explanation of the science, a critical baseline for understanding why gene editing has flopped as a business. Did a great job of balancing business reporting with human writing that really makes you feel for the families that were strung along with hopes of cures for terrible childhood diseases.
Honorable Mention – The Information; Hock Tan
A thorough profile that gave us a full picture of the man behind Broadcom, and how the company reflects his vision, despite his lack of cooperation. Lead anecdote makes you go “wow.”
General Excellence
Large division
Winner – The New York Times
The New York Times submission, from its deep reporting on continued sexual assaults by Uber drivers to a riveting tale about the machinations of the dysfunctional Rupert Murdoch family and its media empire defines the very essence of general excellence. The judges were impressed by the deep probe into the complex business relationships between the Trump White House, Trump himself and the United Arab Emirates., a story that details, step by step the blurred lines between personal enrichment and the public good.
The panel loved the HBO-like “Succession” narrative about the infighting within the Murdoch family, a piece notable not only for its writing but also the reporters’ ability to secure sealed court documents that revealed the lengths to which Rupert and his son went to control the future direction and ideological bent of their media holdings.
And finally, the Times’ graphic of Your Home without China gives proof to the expression, a picture is worth a thousand words. This was an almost whimsical, easily digestible way of seeing just how much of our daily lives is bound up in Chinese imports.
Honorable Mention – The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal’s entry shows how well sourced and tenacious the business reporting team is. From the dogged pursuit of the Epstein documents to a story on a drug that is widely used but not well understood, all of the stories were deeply reported and clearly written. Because of that, in the story on the Park Ave. shooting, you could really feel the horror of the day. For years, we’ve all heard about the addictive nature of Xanax, but the Wall Street Journal’s reporting exposed the devastating side effects for some patients that are far worse than the condition they were being treated for. And the interactive infographic on the Trump businesses was fascinating and drew in the reader in a way that a narrative story could not.
Medium division
Winner – CNBC
The depth of CNBC’s reporting impressed us in every aspect of this package. The Walmart investigation had us entranced, and the effort the reporting team put in — including personally testing the veracity of dozens of products — was astounding. Through interviews with former employers, members of Congress and customers worried about their health and safety, the reporters methodically laid bare how Walmart sacrificed vetting for faster growth — and why that’s dangerous.
The story on OpenAI and Nvidia’s partnership underscored the expertise of the reporter, who clearly knows these companies inside and out and has deep sourcing in the industry. The level of detail about the negotiations and what the resulting agreement looks like impressed us. It’s breaking news that leaves no stone unturned.
Throughout this package, CNBC flexed its investigatory strength, breadth and ability to secure top-level interviews.
Small division
Winner – STAT
STAT’s stories hold powerful institutions accountable and reveal how decisions that affect millions of people are made, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. Through deep sourcing, data and clear explanations, the stories detail how health care power operates when no one thinks the public is watching and why that matters. In addition, all the stories challenge official narratives from Humana’s research contradicting public claims about clinic performance to revealing how the nation’s largest insurer privately managed investor outrage to detailing how Moderna’s pandemic success gave way to strategic missteps.
Honorable Mention – St. Louis Business Journal
The St. Louis Business Journal has been doing an all-around terrific job of reporting on issues that are pertinent to its community and their concerns. Whether tracing the hidden costs of mayoral absenteeism or outdated permitting, the Journal’s reporters and editors have made strong use of data, visuals, and the Freedom of Information Act. In each of the stories submitted for review, they’ve spotlighted a system under stress or undergoing significant change in ways that carry major consequences for their readers, the city government, and the local economy.
Government
Large division
Winner – Capital & Main in collaboration with Los Angeles Times; California’s Child Farmworkers: Exhausted, Underpaid and Toiling in Toxic Fields
This series on the state of California’s failure to enforce its own rules and protect child farmworkers is a powerful piece of accountability journalism by Capital & Main in collaboration with the Los Angeles Times. While children can legally be employed in agriculture in the state, there are rules in place to protect them on the job, especially where dangerous pesticides are in use. But these rules are rarely followed, and regulators don’t check up on employers, the journalists found.
A particularly powerful aspect of the series was a photo essay of portraits depicting children who worked in the fields. The series accomplished the important goal of alerting readers to a growing problem the government is failing to solve.
Honorable Mention – The New York Times; Air Traffic Safety Failures
When an American Airlines jet and Army Black Hawk helicopter collided on a gusty Wednesday night in Washington last year, killing all 67 people aboard, the nation’s capital was beset with questions. The reporting team doggedly worked a wide, intricate web of 50-plus expert sources and corroborated reams of federal reports and documents to unearth unplumbed details. Their clear, piercing writing takes readers inside the control room and cockpits that night, where we meet each character, hear their communications, track their flight routes and picture the safety layers crumbling, minute by minute, in a devastating narrative of the tragedy.
Honorable Mention – The Wall Street Journal; How the Trumps Turned an Election Victory into a Cash Bonanza
This exhaustively reported series starkly highlights the extraordinary transactions involving Trump family interests and businesspeople who stood to directly benefit from Trump’s actions in the White House. The reporters provide compelling details about the actions of cryptocurrency platform Binance that helped a Trump family-owned company net tens of millions dollars in the months before Trump pardoned Binance’s founder of a money laundering conviction. While the Binance episode and Amazon’s extraordinary payment to Melania Trump to license a documentary were reported by other outlets, this entry stood out for its strong narrative and the thoroughness of its reporting.
Medium division
Winner –The Record/NorthJersey.com; Hidden at Home
This series revealed the abuse and neglect — at times fatal — endured by disabled New Jersey residents in a $1.5 billion group home system. The reporting got results: Prosecutors brought charges of neglect against one company days after the series was published. The state later passed a law imposing new fines on operators and revamped a website to offer families more information about the homes. This shows the power of local journalism and is worthy of top honors.
Honorable Mention – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in collaboration with Medill Graduate School of Journalism; Deadly Dust
In-depth reporting and impressive use of data-driven graphics exposed the dangers that miners face from inhaling silica, a toxin caused by drilling sandstone. This made the series stand out in a competitive category
Small division
Winner – Capital & Main; It’s Brown and Burns Your Eyes. In Small-Town Texas, Clean Water Is Elusive.
Elena Bruess told a policy story through a human lens. From her opening anecdote, we were engaged and ready to hear all about this community and its brown water problem. Bruess’s on-the-ground reporting did a great job of humanizing the issue and we appreciated how she broke down the complexity of the problem and why it is difficult for local governments to take advantage of state and federal water funds. Photography helps to tell this story, especially the photo of children’s bath toys floating in a tub of brown water.
Health/Science
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg News; Profit or Pain
This powerful investigative package exposes how foreign hospitals financed by the World Bank detained vulnerable patients who could not pay their bills — revealing a stark collision between global development finance and human rights. Through meticulous reporting, financial tracing and firsthand accounts, Bloomberg connects institutional lending practices to real-world harm. The series demonstrates exceptional enterprise journalism, holding international power structures accountable while centering the human cost. It is investigative health reporting at a global scale — rigorous, urgent and consequential.
Honorable Mention – The New York Times; Our Broken Transplant System
This deeply reported investigation probes inequities and structural weaknesses within the U.S. organ transplant system — a system where decisions can mean life or death. Combining data analysis, policy scrutiny and compelling human stories, The New York Times sheds light on how allocation practices and institutional pressures can disadvantage patients. The work stands out for its clarity in navigating complex medical systems and its impact on public understanding of transplant oversight and accountability.
Honorable Mention – The Wall Street Journal; Overmedicated America
In this probing examination of prescription drug use in the United States, The Wall Street Journal explores how powerful market forces, evolving medical norms and patient expectations are reshaping the nation’s approach to mental health treatment. With strong reporting and accessible storytelling, the series interrogates the business and cultural dynamics behind rising prescriptions, raising important questions about incentives, risk, and long-term consequences. It is thoughtful, timely and deeply relevant to the national conversation on health care.
Medium division
Winner – KFF Health News; How the Trump administration fueled a measles comeback in America
KFF Health News took a deep look at how the measles outbreak in Texas was uncontrolled and then spread throughout the Southwestern US, partly because the U.S. government failed to deploy resources and put out mixed messaging (or no messaging) on the importance of the vaccine. The three stories together show the dire consequences of what happened and how confusing the “response” was. The judges appreciated the screenshot of emails and how public health workers really had no additional resources to do this properly. The level of reporting and fact-checking and stats was excellent.
Honorable Mention – The Current GA in collaboration with ProPublica; Broken Pathways: How the Nation’s Only Medicaid Work Requirement Experiment Fails Georgians
The stories chronicled the program dysfunction that ensnared thousands of eligible Georgians, including the star of a Pathways testimonial video who was dropped from coverage multiple times. This series succeeded in exposing the flaws in the Pathways program–and illuminates what an integral part Deloitte is.
Small division
Winner – STAT; How the CRISPR boom went bust
Jason Mast at STAT delivers deeply sourced life sciences coverage in a compelling way, from the CRISPR bust to the declining fortunes of COVID 19‑vaccine maker Moderna. Drawing on interviews with more than 75 investors, executives, and scientists, he dissects how scientific setbacks and investor demands have stymied CRISPR, one of biotech’s most consequential breakthroughs, and whether the gene‑editing technology can ever be as transformative as originally envisioned. In a similarly incisive deep dive, Mast shows how Moderna, the high‑flying company of the pandemic era, has plunged into a tailspin of layoffs, strategic missteps, a plummeting stock price and mounting political crosswinds.
Honorable Mention – Sherwood Media; Franken-pills: the rise of unregulated GLP-1s and the companies that sell them
Edward Moreno of Sherwood News has a knack for cutting through the hype surrounding some of the hottest trends in healthcare: GLP-1 drugs, telehealth companies, and direct-to-consumer blood testing. His sharp coverage provides a revealing window into how startups push the boundaries of medicine and regulation in the pursuit of profit.
International Reporting
Large division
Winner – Business Insider; Gaza’s Economic Collapse
The Business Insider team produced a gut-wrenching video that laid bare the cost of the war and the challenges and threats facing Gazans, using both traditional sourcing methods and digital tools. It was a tremendous effort considering international media have largely been cut off from reporting in Gaza and deserves recognition.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; The True Cost of China’s Falling Prices
This story from Bloomberg combines granular data tracking with ground-level reporting to reveal how deflation in the world’s second-largest economy is more deeply entrenched than official figures indicate. While its thorough analyses of everyday goods prices and corporate filings in China support the narrative, the detailed anecdotes of individuals affected by lower wages and layoffs highlight the real consequences of the persistent deflation.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – Nikkei Asia; Developing Asia’s Brain Drain
Immigration is a story often told from the receiving country’s perspective, but here the winner took a road less traveled. In a series of thoughtful deep dives, Nikkei Asia revealed the struggles of those who stay behind.
The best explanatory journalism invites readers to think about the world from a new perspective. Nikkei here dives deep, handling sensitive issues with nuance and grace. There are no villains or easy answers, simply people trying to do their best for themselves and their families at a scale that will shape their countries and the world for generations to come.
Honorable Mention – Investigate Midwest in collaboration with Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk; China is investing billions in Latin America, potentially sidelining US farmers for decades to come
Soybeans are the bitcoin of the global agribusiness. Part cash crop. Part industrial component. Part trading commodity, the story of what makes soybeans valuable is never easy to tell. And Champaign, IL-based investigative non-profit, Investigate Midwest, deserves real credit for tackling this most unknowable of food products.
Editors used off-the-shelf presentation tools, effective writing, and most of all, diligent local sourcing to explain how Beijing affects Bismarck, when it comes to Soybeans. Tasty stuff, indeed.
Investigative
Large division
Winner – Reuters; Meta’s Secrets to Success
Through deep and dogged reporting, Reuters tech reporter Jeff Horwitz obtained shocking internal Meta documents depicting AI chatbots engaging in “sensual” conversations with children. Horwitz also produced documents showing that the company knowingly exposed users to billions of scam ads, which earned Meta an estimated $16 billion annually, or 10% of its total revenue.
Horwitz’s ability to get inside the social media behemoth, which touches the lives of billions of users around the globe, resulted in original and impactful stories, demonstrating how investigative journalism done in the public interest can produce results. Notably, the coverage sparked international regulatory inquiries and lawsuits, and precipitated reforms of key operations at Meta.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; Zombie debt
Bloomberg’s Zombie Debt series depicts the afterlife of the pre-2008 housing bubble. The entry shows how second mortgages were resurrected to strip homeowners of their equity and in some cases their homes.
Using internal documents and public data on second mortgages, and by examining dozens of lawsuits, the reporters found evidence that consumer protection laws had been violated.
The series, which was national in scope, underscored the limits of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the current administration. It combined thorough reporting with compelling storytelling, using heart-wrenching anecdotes to demonstrate the human impact of zombie debt. And it influenced legal outcomes and policy debates around a financial issue that affects thousands of homeowners.
Honorable Mention – Consumer Reports in collaboration with Food & Environment Reporting Network, Groundwork Collaborative, More Perfect Union and The Guardian; Investigating Pricing at the Nation’s Largest Grocers
At a time when consumers carefully watched spending, Consumer Reports and their partners weighed in on pricing practices at two of the country’s largest grocers: Kroger and Instacart.
Part one of CR’s investigation, with The Guardian US and the Food & Environment Reporting Network, found that expired sales labels at Kroger led to overcharges across the country. Part two shows how Kroger built secret shopper profiles with its customers’ personal data. In response to the findings, Kroger changed its signage company-wide and announced it was hiring 15,000 additional employees.
CR also reported on Instacart’s algorithmic pricing practices. The investigation, with an accompanying white paper written with the Groundwork Collaborative, showed many shoppers who order through Instacart are unwitting guinea pigs in AI-enabled price experiments. Shortly after the Instacart investigation published, federal and state legislators proposed bills banning personalized pricing.
Medium division
Winner – KFF Health News; Broken Rehab
This entry thrusts a spotlight on a little-scrutinized – but widespread – metamorphosis in the healthcare landscape: the shift from nonprofit rehabilitation hospitals to for-profit organizations. Amid this sea change, patients are suffering from shoddy or negligent care, coverage denials, and even death. Rau tenaciously pursued inspection reports for hundreds of rehab hospitals, suing under the Freedom of Information Act.
This series meticulously explored multiple facets of the rehab industry and has already sparked some “rehab” in the industry; according to KFF, during the course of its investigation, one insurer revised its policy on ventilator coverage.
Honorable Mention – San Francisco Chronicle; Burned: A San Francisco Chronicle investigation into how the insurance industry has failed wildfire victims
This deeply reported, colorful and clearly written series by the San Francisco Chronicle paints a vivid picture of the agony faced by many homeowners after major wildfires. After the disasters, many faced overwhelming problems with their insurance companies, leaving them without enough money to be able to rebuild. These well-documented and gripping articles are an important reminder for journalists to interview a wide variety of informed sources and follow up on earlier stories.
The systemic insurance failures are corroborated by extensive data and fieldwork, and reinforced by heartrending personal accounts. It features riveting photos and videos, and crisp, detailed animated graphics that clarify complex concepts. As climate change continues to cause mass destruction, and the insurance industry and its customers both struggle to keep their footing, this story will only continue to grow in resonance and relevance.
Small division
Winner – MindSite News; Deadly Denials: When Insurers Fail to Cover Treatment for Eating Disorders, People Suffer. Sometimes They Die.
MindSite News delivered a powerful series that details the obstacles that people with eating disorders face when they try to obtain insurance coverage for treatment. Reporter Melanie Haiken shows how health insurers and managed care organizations limit care and payments for eating disorders, particularly for people on public insurance. She also chronicles the barriers that families and advocates face in obtaining treatment for eating disorders. Those include the refusal by private equity-owned residential facilities to accept public insurance, and the lack of treatment options in rural states.
Honorable Mention – Inside Climate News; Wired for Profit
Inside Climate News offered a powerful critique of Alabama Power, the state’s largest electric utility, in analyzing why ratepayers pay the highest residential electric bills in the nation. Reporters Dennis Pillion and Lee Hedgepeth show how the state’s regulator sets rates with virtually no public participation through an opaque process that began decades ago. They also illustrate powerfully the risks that the company’s coal ash ponds pose to Alabama’s waterways. The package combines compelling graphics and powerful writing.
Investing/Markets
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg News; How Tariffs Ripped Through the Metals Markets
The judges were struck by the depth of market knowledge, sourcing, and strength of the writing. The articles offered considerable detail about the chaos in the commodity markets resulting from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Reporting on such developments is very difficult and requires extensive experience.
Honorable Mention – The Wall Street Journal; The Trump Crypto Story: Pardon and Profit
This entry documented the extent to which Trump’s family is profiting from his second term in office. The story remarkably reports on how Trump used the presidential pardon of a convicted felon to advance a business relationship.
Medium division
Winner – Fortune Magazine; Investors are betting big on ‘prediction markets’ Kalshi and Polymarket—will the gamble pay off?
Strong feature writing by Jeff John Roberts relays the stakes as two companies – Kalshi and Polymarket – battle at the forefront of the emerging prediction markets industry. Impressive sourcing complements the clarity of thought present throughout this entertaining read on the platforms’ odysseys and oddities.
Honorable Mention – Barron’s; Clicking to Invest
Jacob Adelman’s thorough reporting on X’s “Going Public” not only highlighted and contextualized the potential risks for investors, but it drove real impact during the run of the show, leading to a postponed finale. The articles themselves are well-sourced and cleanly written, resulting in a series of investing stories that are both accessible and compelling for a mainstream audience.
Small division
Winner – Capital & Main; Dirty Money: Big Oil, Big Insurance and the Housing Crisis
This well-reported piece tackles a timely, compelling topic with depth and clarity. Reporter Marcus Baram weaves expert perspectives with real people’s experiences to illuminate both industry implications and the impact on everyday Americans.
Honorable Mention – Crain’s Grand Rapids Business; Michigan tribes borrow from Warren Buffett’s playbook to grow outside of gaming
A smartly framed, thoroughly reported story. Reporter Rachel Watson deftly uses data and details to examine how tribal nations’ changing strategies are affecting local and regional economies.
Media/Entertainment
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg News; Netflix Clinches Warner Bros. Deal
Bloomberg’s entry stood out with a narrative style that has the familiarity of two friends spilling tea. The stories take us inside the room as deal talks and political lobbying unfold. Along the way, Shaw and Davis skillfully weave in context and history to illuminate players’ motivations and make the broader impacts clear. Their step-ahead reporting, lively, authoritative writing and deep sourcing invite readers in and keep them engaged to the end.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – CNBC; Paramount’s Pursuit of WBD
CNBC’s stories on Paramount’s pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery exemplifies clear, impact-driven business reporting on one of the biggest media business stories of the year.
Newsletter
Large division
Winner – The Globe and Mail; Business Brief
While many newsletters are commentary on the news and links to key stories, Chris Wilson-Smith goes beyond that by traveling and telling the stories of real people caught up in economic issues in nicely reported and written stories of their situations and challenges that anchor the newsletter.
Honorable Mention – The Washington Post; The Tech Friend
Honorable mention goes to Tech Friend by Shira Ovide, an experienced technology journalist at the Washington Post. In her three submitted stories she was able to illuminate key issues with great examples, a clear understanding of the context. Her piece on tariffs and companies using the deminimus exception and the impact of eliminating it was top-notch.
Medium division
Winner – The News & Observer; Open Source: A newsletter on business, technology and labor in North Carolina
There’s a hometown feel to Brian Gordon’s writing. You can sense his love and admiration for his location, and it comes through in his Open Source newsletter, whether he’s talking to diners at a Waffle House in South Durham about AI-driven job displacement or touring the Mounjaro production line at Eli Lilly’s obesity-drug manufacturing plant in Concord, North Carolina.
Small division
Winner – STAT; Unpacking the messy, mystifying business of health care
What set STAT’s submission apart was its approach to exclusively uncovering significant developments in the health care business that challenge industry narratives. The judges felt that the combination of exclusive reporting, accessible writing and spotlight on issues that demand accountability elevated it above its competitors.
Honorable Mention – The Information; AI Agenda
As artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping global commerce, this buzzy newsletter helps to humanize some of the key players. The writing is clear, fresh, and deeply sourced, with snappy sections about new hires, deals, and events.
Personal Finance
Large division
Winner – USA TODAY; The heir’s property
This piece spotlight a hugely important and relatively obscure issue was well written and was empathetic and compelling in showing the impact on the people affected.
Honorable Mention – Law360; The Law Firm Loophole: How Debt Companies Snare North Carolina Consumers
The judges liked how informative and actionable this piece was, shining a light on a practice that is relatively new, pernicious, and could affect anyone.
Medium division
Winner – The Guardian; The Price We Pay
These stories exemplify what real journalism should look like — they go deep into a topic that impacts thousands of people and bring out details that could make a difference to the lives and households of people who have little power to protect themselves.
Small division
Winner – MarketWatch; How Much Will Your Next Hospital Stay Cost? No One Seems to Know
This entry was remarkable in that it honed in on one of the most critical personal expenses anyone will ever face, and how difficult it is to get a handle on how much it actually costs, making it almost impossible for consumers to know what to save for this rainy day.
Podcast/Audio
Large division
Winner – National Public Radio; Planet Money explains tariffs and their consequences
NPR’s Planet Money demonstrated compelling, deeply explanatory reporting in a highly engaging fashion, helping the audience understand the rollout of tariffs from multiple angles: from the impact on businesses big and small that rely on imports to detailing how supporters think tariffs would bolster the U.S. economy. They also explored the legal angles for opposing the tariffs in court, which proved prescient. The podcasts exhibited an energy that rose above the other entries, reporting clear stories that respected listeners’ time and desire to learn more.
Honorable Mention – The New York Times; The Daily: Liberation Day Fallout
The Daily produced memorable episodes about the new tariffs that vividly showcased their impact. The sensitive but probing interviews with expertly booked subjects were a powerful highlight.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – The Outlaw Ocean Project in collaboration with CBC Podcasts; The Outlaw Ocean Podcast
Ian Urbina and his team put their lives on the line to investigate a murder and the treatment of people migrating. The team gives listeners a first-hand account of what it’s like to be a journalist in a prison in another country.
Honorable Mention – Public Health Watch; Fumed
The sources in this podcast keep you listening as they help tell the important story of Channelview, Texas. David Leffler does a great job of keeping the listener interested in this well-produced podcast.
Real Estate
Large division
Winner – Bloomberg News; LA Wildfire Real Estate Aftershocks
Can you pull together a sweeping package about Los Angeles wildfires before the embers are extinguished? This excellent and comprehensive effort tapped more than a dozen journalists to tell stories about predatory land buyers and California’s teetering insurance market. Vivid before-and-after photography, enlightening data visualizations, and a gripping narrative adeptly balance the perspectives of individuals and organizations and capture intractable issues that will remain in the headlines for years to come.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; Deception in Paradise
The judges are in awe of the pure investigative moxie of this project, which tells the stories of defrauded investors in Mexican real estate—not the professional kind, mind you, but individuals who could be our neighbors or friends. With excellent shoe-leather reporting and original photography and video, these journalists demonstrate the lengths that they’re willing to go to find the sordid truth in Tulum.
Medium division
Winner – Houston Chronicle; Built to Flood: Who profits and who pays the price for building in Texas floodplains
With exceptional use of data analysis, the Houston Chronicle has produced a brilliant package that reveals a dangerous, even potentially deadly, set of regulatory flaws that homeowners, home buyers and voters need to know about. The package is a glaring indictment of developer greed, political influence-buying and heedless growth. It names names, which voters should be mindful of at election time. Importantly, the user-friendly feature that allows homeowners and buyers to assess their flood risk is an invaluable tool. An extraordinary piece of work.
Honorable Mention – CNBC; How the AI data center boom is reshaping rural America
This sweeping and important package adroitly examines the ups and downs of a fast-moving, poorly regulated and contentious area of development. The analysis of the sometimes-unlikely opposition — delightfully humanized — and the posing of major questions about incentives raise compelling issues. So, too, does the exploration of the upheaval in jobs the AI boom is generating. Exceptionally well done.
Honorable Mention – Nikkei Asia; Shibuya: The Tokyo redevelopment project that never ends
A well-researched and brilliantly presented and illustrated piece that tells the tale of an often fraught and challenging development in a key part of the Tokyo. Eminently readable, thorough and inviting. The use of history to bring the story alive is deft and engaging.
Small division
Winner – Capital & Main; Locked Out: How Some of Los Angeles’ Biggest Landlords Leave Section 8 Tenants Behind
Capital & Main used an innovative approach to prove that some of the biggest landlords in Los Angeles made it virtually impossible for people to get an apartment in any of their buildings using Section 8 housing assistance. The reporting combined testers who submitted rental applications with extensive analysis of public records to flag how few apartments these landlords rented to needy applicants and showed the variety of excuses the companies used to justify their rejections, which likely violated the law. Top-notch accountability reporting.
Honorable Mention – Suncoast Searchlight; Power and Profit
An impressively reported deep dive into a relatively obscure financing mechanism used by local developers in Florida to pay for major capital projects that saddle homeowners with significant risk, while offering them little say in the matter.
Honorable Mention – MLK50: Justice Through Journalism; Paying for Squalor
These stories revealed the horrendous conditions renters in multiple Memphis apartment complexes had to endure as their landlords got big tax breaks from the city. The reporting had significant impact, leading city officials to cancel the tax benefits for the landlords who had failed to ensure suitable living conditions.
Retail
Large division
Winner – Consumer Reports in collaboration with Food & Environment Reporting Network, Groundwork Collaborative, More Perfect Union and The Guardian; Investigating Pricing at Nation’s Largest Grocers
This is an extensively reported piece that has real-world consequences for readers. The piece elicited a response and reaction and the judges were impressed by the deep knowledge of the industry.
Honorable Mention – The Globe and Mail; The Globe and Mail retail coverage
Susan was able to turn otherwise turn-of-the-screw coverage into engaging narratives. The judges loved the narrative built from court documents – especially involving a recognizable brand that will have broad appeal for readers and engage an otherwise hard-to-penetrate topic.
Medium division
Winner – CNBC; Walmart’s Marketplace boom: How lax vetting came with identity theft and fakes
While the issue of counterfeits on Walmart’s and Amazon’s marketplaces is not a new controversy, CNBC went the extra mile to do an investigation into the matter, and its findings attracted attention and seemed to prompt Walmart to subsequently tighten its vetting process.
Honorable Mention – The Cincinnati Enquirer; A year of questions and controversy for Kroger supermarkets
This entry shows true enterprise and original reporting, and the amount of depth in discussing “retail’s dirty little secret” goes a long way in uncovering a common practice that doesn’t get enough sustained attention. Along with the other issues plaguing the grocery store chain, this reporting showcases how many small bad decisions at one company can impact so many Americans that rely on the grocer for their everyday needs, including employment.
Honorable Mention – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Raise prices or lose profits? Pittsburgh-area restaurant owners are wrestling with what to do about rising costs
This is a smart feature on an issue that is plaguing eateries across the country and speaks to the pain of Trump’s tariffs on many small businesses by highlighting the coping strategies they have had to turn to stay open without hurting their staff or customers.
Small division
Winner – The Information; Retail’s AI Revolution
These stories aren’t just scoops. They offer authoritative analysis of the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape and unpack the motivations of various players, quickly telling readers why the changes matter. The pieces synthesize reporting from multiple sources, with admirably tight writing that respects readers’ time.
Small Business
Large division
Winner – The New York Times; The Tariff Toll on Small Business
The judges were very impressed with the New York Times’ outstanding coverage of the Trump tariffs. Among other things, the Times provides readers with stories, accompanied by compelling visual elements, demonstrating the close ties between U.S. and Chinese companies. That really helps improve our understanding of the global economy, and how tariffs affect businesses in our communities.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – Mainebiz; Portland at a crossroads
Well-reported examination of the challenges facing Portland’s downtown district, with good interviews with local business owners, vivid photos and compelling graphics.
Student Journalism
Stories for Professional News Organizations
Winner – The Real Deal; Rent-stabilized losses have hit NYC pension funds. Will the city finally care?
The data analysis and interviews with key players made this a strong story. Reporter Quinn Waller thoroughly explained the issue and seemed to move it forward in the public debate. The story had a clear structure and writing. It would have benefited from a graph or two explaining the unique nature of rent-stabilized housing in NYC.
Stories for Student Media Outlets
Winner – Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and Arizona State University; Off the Rails
Howard Centers’ students did a compelling and thorough job of reporting on a crucial issue for the nation. This work is worthy of appearing in a professional media outlet. The judges were impressed by the collection of data from multiple sources and the many interviews with people on the ground. The stories were well structured and the writing was clear. Even readers with little knowledge of the topic can comprehend the serious problems facing the rail industry across the country. Bravo on a job well done!
Technology
Large division
Winner – The Wall Street Journal; The Dangerous Consequences of Chatbot Delusions
WSJ’s reporting on how ChatGPT propelled a murder-suicide and manic episodes was groundbreaking and poignant. The series offers a definitive account of how AI worsened the condition of individuals struggling with psychosis and revealed for the first time—and with precision—what is at stake when proper safety guardrails aren’t in place. The series also took a thoughtful and sensitive approach in reporting on mental health issues, and these stories made an impact by sparking lawsuits and additional academic research.
Honorable Mention – Reuters; Meta’s Secrets of Success
The Reuters series exemplifies the best of technology reporting that exposes what powerful companies don’t want anyone to see. In this case, it showed Meta’s pattern of lax AI safety standards as well as misbehavior in its core ad business. The piece revealing Meta’s secret policies for allowing chatbots to conduct risqué conversations with children went viral in the AI industry, influencing other companies’ policy deliberations.
Honorable Mention – Financial Times; Mark Zuckerberg’s turbulent year
The FT presented deep, original reporting about Zuckerberg’s ideological pivot at a critical moment for Meta and U.S. politics. It translates inside-baseball power dynamics into a compelling narrative with sharp accountability, making the stakes legible to a broad business audience without losing nuance.
Medium division
Winner — The Markup in collaboration with The 19th, The Guardian and The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting; Dating App Cover-Up: How Tinder, Hinge, and Their Corporate Owner Keep Rape Under Wraps
This collaborative investigation by The Markup, The Guardian, The 19th, and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting draws readers into the dark hole of dating apps’ safety practices, along with how the industry’s dominant player turned a blind eye to the predators roaming its products. With urgency and moral clarity, reporters Emily Elena Dugdale and Hanisha Harjani shine a light on how an investor-pressured Match Group concealed accusations of sexual violence on its dating platforms.
Honorable Mention — ProPublica; Zero Trust: Inside Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Failures
In an age when cyberattacks and digital espionage are remaking the rules of war, this commendable investigation from ProPublica uncovers how Microsoft allowed low-cost Chinese engineers to work inside the US government’s most sensitive computer systems — and left the nation’s most sensitive data exposed to its chief adversary. Renee Dudley’s reporting didn’t just reveal how Microsoft put corporate profit over American privacy; it caught the Pentagon’s top security experts in the dark and incited meaningful changes in American policy.
Small division
Winner – IEEE Spectrum; Ukraine Tech
In its submission materials, IEEE Spectrum hailed a trio of reports by Tereza Pultarova as a “tour de force of technical military reporting, offering exclusive insights into the rapidly evolving electronic battlefield in Ukraine.” The judges couldn’t agree more. Pultarova’s reporting was not only deft and elucidating, but also brave as she personally experienced multiple drone strikes. The judges are pleased to honor this work as the winner—a true standout this year.
Honorable Mention – Sherwood Media; Making AI and its impact understandable to humans
Jon Keegan’s stories in Sherwood were examples of journalism at its most creative and engaging. Writing about AI and data centers, Keegan seemingly uses every tool in his toolbelt to enlighten the reader about what can be dense, hard-to-chew topics.
The Business of Sports
Large division
Winner – The Wall Street Journal; How the Black Market for High-School Athletes Tore a Family Apart
This story is investigative work at its finest – equal parts soul-crushing about how kids and their families can be preyed upon when they don’t have the right knowledge or help working in the system; and infuriating because it is all pretty much legal, or at least not criminalized.
This story should be sent to every member of Congress, because youth, scholastic and collegiate sports never reform themselves on their own.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – The Guardian; The Big Bet: Inside America’s online gambling boom
A well-constructed and thoroughly reported series on the American sports betting industry. The reporters moved methodically from a single lawsuit against DraftKings to a broader examination of VIP programs and their role in sustaining problem gamblers, before concluding with a clear-eyed look at the regulatory gaps that allow these practices to continue.
The evidence gathered is strong, and the detail that DraftKings amended its own job postings after being approached for comment is the kind of tangible result that distinguishes solid investigative work. The human stories are handled with care and kept the series accessible while grounding its seriousness.
Taken together, the three pieces make a coherent and well-supported case demonstrating the need to change the industry’s predatory practices. The judges were pleased to recognize it.
Honorable Mention – Barron’s; Sports Betting’s Ticking Time Bomb
A well-reported series that approaches the public health consequences of America’s sports betting boom from a financial and systemic perspective. Devor builds a coherent argument: that the infrastructure meant to protect problem gamblers is underfunded, poorly coordinated, and in some cases actively undermined by the industry interests that nominally support it.
The reporting is grounded throughout in specific, verifiable detail — internal emails, sworn legal filings, funding data broken down at the state level — and the human stories are handled with care. The 1-800-Gambler dispute, in particular, is a well-sourced piece of original reporting that exposes a genuine and previously unreported fracture in the problem gambling support system.
Devor examines the structures around gambling addiction — the funding gaps, the lobbying, the helpline politics — rather than the industry’s direct relationship with individual problem gamblers. That is a legitimate and valuable choice, and it produces serious work.
Travel/Transportation
Large division
Winner – The Wall Street Journal; Toxic Fumes Are Leaking into Airplanes
The Wall Street Journal team used a novel data analysis approach to bring attention to a little-known issue and populated the stories with wrenching personal examples. The reporters did their work to be able to push back against industry attempts to discredit the science, while being upfront about the parts that are impossible to prove. By obtaining insider accounts, the WSJ was able to show awareness of the toxic issue over the past decade. The central thrust of the reporting does appear to have come from a union and a few Congressmembers, but the scale of the work they did to verify the complaints overcomes this shortcoming.
Honorable Mention – Bloomberg News; The Dark Side of Peru’s Rainbow Mountain
The on-the-ground reporting highlighted the complexities of an impoverished area that underwent an overnight transformation due to tourism. By earning the trust of community members, the reporter was able to catalogue dramatic moments and personal impacts. It was perhaps a surprising submission for business awards, but it shows how profits and their management can divide a community.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – Miami Herald in collaboration with National Public Radio; Killer Train
A devastating investigation into multiple deaths along a single rail corridor that drove real-world impact at both the local and federal levels.
Honorable Mention – Fortune Magazine; Two firefighters suffered chemical burns in a Boring Co. tunnel. Then the Nevada governor’s office got involved, and the penalties disappeared
Strong reporting on the risks faced by those building and maintaining tunnels underneath Las Vegas, a $400,000 disappearing fine, and the cozy relationship between company and state officials.
Video
Large division
Winner – Business Insider; Inside the Data Center Explosion
How do you tell a story that starts with the most mundane of descriptions— a data center. You tell it like this with an unwavering resolve to make it real. Uncover what is readily available–public documents–and you combine that with the law—and create a tool for everyone. This was not just about developing a public database but providing the context to understand–and to engage–with the material.
This video had everything a winning SABEW video category entry should: enterprising reporting on an important and timely subject; investigative digging and clear storytelling. The Business Insider team is commended for revealing the troubling realities behind the explosion in data centers of the AI revolution.
Honorable Mention – Financial Times; Trump, tariffs, and the battle for blue collar America
The Financial Times’ Patti Waldmeir combined thoughtful reporting with her personal history of growing up in the area around Detroit to explain the effects Trump’s tariffs truly are having, and are likely to have, on blue-collar work and manufacturing in America. The video provided heartfelt accounts from people choosing to do this work, ones whose families have decided not to follow their parents’ careers and optimistic entrepreneurs creating new types of manufacturing jobs.
Medium and small divisions
Winner – CNBC; RiskyRX
This is a stellar example of investigative journalism at its finest, masterfully presenting a little-talked-about facet of the already troubled American healthcare industry. It is very timely, considering Americans are in this pull-and-tug scenario when it comes to high costs, especially with prescription drugs.
CNBC presents the inherent dangers that consumers face when having to rely on AFPs, why the drugs that AFPs import are actually illegal, while balancing it with the cost-savings needed by employers (especially smaller ones) and employees. Its deep and effective use of public records is exemplary, its interviews show a level of sourcing and access that sets it apart, and its strong and steady narrative combined with compelling visuals keeps viewers hooked throughout the 30-minute slot and makes this story impossible to look away from.
