The Deadline Club's 2024 Awards Winners
These are the winners that were selected from more than 550 entries to the Deadline Club’s 2024 Awards Contest. Winners were announced at the Deadline Club’s annual Awards Dinner on Thursday, May 16 at the Harvard Club. More info about this year’s event can be found at, https://www.deadlineclub.org/2024-awards-dinner/.
The Deadline Club thanks all those who entered the 2023 annual awards contest, the 100 judges and encourages all journalists to keep up the exceptional work.
If you are a winner, you can request an additional statuette for a fee by filling out this form: https://bit.ly/DeadlineAwardRequest.
If you would like a digital or print certificate as a finalist, you can fill out this form: https://bit.ly/DeadlineFinalist
Questions or comments: awards@deadlineclub.org
1. The Daniel Pearl Award for Investigative Reporting
The New York Times “Alone and Exploited” Hannah Dreier
At every turn, Hannah Dreier’s work astonished us. Her yearlong effort to unearth child labor in more than a dozen U.S. states was staggering in scope and her skill at telling the stories of hundreds of migrant children and their families was extraordinary in nuance. The New York Times’ “Alone and Exploited” proved peerless in revealing uncomfortable truths and rot in the American value system.
2. Newspaper or Digital Beat Reporting
Reuters “The Musk Industrial Complex” Reuters Staff
Most investigative series focus on a single company or industry. But in this case, Reuters reporters became experts in a broad range of industries – rockets, electric cars, medical devices, electronic surveillance and insurance – to reveal problems that persist across major companies owned by Elon Musk, including understaffing, gouging customers financially, and a drive for fast growth that consistently places workers’ and customers’ lives at risk. A bold and successful effort.
3. Newspaper or Digital Feature Reporting
Associated Press “In the shadow of loss, a mother’s long search for happiness” Matt Sedensky
Matt Sedensky poignantly captures the devastating effects of mass shootings on families, through the lens of one woman whose long evolution has taken her from the depths of despair to finding purpose. A skilled reporter and storyteller, and a master wordsmith, he has penned an unforgettable story while evoking a sense of urgency to address one of our country’s greatest challenges.
4. Newspaper or Digital Spot News Reporting
Newsday “Gilgo Beach Killings Arrest” Newsday Staff
Newsday jumped on an arrest in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach serial murders with energy and experience deserving of this notorious local mystery. The paper deftly depicted the evidence against the suspect, captured the reactions of stunned neighbors and designed a compelling interactive map showing the victims and their locations. Newsday’s work stands out on a story that attracted national coverage, and its staff produced detailed and insightful work that topped the extensive competition.
5. Newspaper or Digital Enterprise Reporting
The Trace “Dangerous Homes: Guns and Domestic Violence Exact a Deadly Toll on Kids” Jennifer Mascia
While much of the nation’s attention is focused on protecting children from harm while they’re in school, “Dangerous Homes: Guns and Domestic Violence Exact a Deadly Toll on Kids” raises the curtain on a far greater, yet underreported danger to children: domestic violence. Backed by data analysis and often heartbreaking interviews with relatives of children killed as a result of domestic violence, The Trace offers an eye-opening expose on legal loopholes, lax gun regulations and other problems that often leave children unprotected in dangerous situations. The Trace’s reporting avoids sensationalism and leaves the reader with facts backed by deeply researched data.
6. Newspaper or Digital Local News Reporting
Streetsblog “Ghost Tags: Inside New York City’s Black Market for Temporary License Plates” Jesse Coburn
The judges were impressed by the extensive research and reporting that went into the “Ghost Tags” investigation. It had a major impact, with lawmakers in New York, New Jersey and Georgia all proposing new legislation in the wake of this important reporting. This project was published by Streetsblog NYC, which has just four reporters and two editors. We were astounded by the depth of reporting and the impact of a small nonprofit newsroom.
7. Reporting by Newspapers with a Circulation under 100,000
The Highlands Current “Beacon: Then, Now and How” Jeff Simms, Brian PJ Cronin, Leonard Sparks
A well reported story that weaves the relatable topics into an engaging series. In addition to great multimedia, we picked this story due to the preparation that went into it – thinking out the parts, finding good characters, and a lot of research into the archives to find supporting sidebars. Overall, a very well written piece about very relatable topics.
8. Reporting by Independent Digital Media
The Intercept “Kissinger’s Killing Fields” Nick Turse
The Kissinger series grabs readers by the throat in the first paragraph of the first story and does not release its grip even after the series is over. It is a searing examination of the incalculable loss of innocent human lives ordered by Henry Kissinger and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, and should be required reading for all journalists. This series shed new light through dozens of interviews and meticulous research of these events of a half-century ago. The range of material is impressive, including Cambodian reaction, the US blaming civilian reporters for looting and transcripts of Kissinger’s calls.
9. Magazine Personal Service
Consumer Reports “CR’s Guide to Better, Safer Drinking Water” Lauren Kirchner , Keith Flamer, Lauren Friedman, Joel Keehn, Wendy Greenfield
Consumer Reports’s Guide to Better, Safer Drinking Water epitomizes a strong magazine personal service piece: It’s enterprising, thorough, and gives actionable advice for a wide swath of consumers (we all drink water, right?) while also working to prompt higher-level action from policymakers. The piece did its job so well that one of our judges put a CR-recommended water filter in her Amazon cart right away.
10. Magazine Profile
The Atavist Magazine “The Quality of Mercy” Anna Altman
A stunning entry that manages to capture both a unique individual personality, as well as capture a pressing social issue through that person’s lens and personal experience. A prime example of how rich storytelling can carry a message with social commentary within an entertaining, informative and heartfelt delivery. A truly deserving masterpiece of storytelling in a highly competitive category.
11. Magazine Investigative Reporting
Consumer Reports “Nobody Should Lose a Child Over a Toy: Water Beads Can Be Deadly and Are Sending Thousands to the ER Each Year” Lauren Kirchner , Margot Gilman, Joel Keehn, Joy Crane, Scott Meadows
In an extremely competitive field, Consumer Reports’ entry, which succinctly and effectively illustrated the tragic, toxic and fatal dangers of water bead toys to children, demonstrated urgency for public safety and major influence after publication. Their in-depth investigation – including comprehensive product safety testing, compelling video and audio clips and credible photo illustrations – persuaded several retailers to stop selling water beads and federal lawmakers to introduce legislation to ban the products.
12. Magazine Feature Reporting
The New York Times Magazine “The Kids on the Night Shift” Hannah Dreier
Exhaustive and courageous reporting, a magisterial effort bringing to light the issue of dangerous immigrant child labor in the meatpacking industry, resulting in stunningly significant and swift federal response. The reporter placed the issue in its broad context with far-reaching research that included her suing to uncover data. But she drew readers intimately into the subject by immersing herself in one affected community and by focusing on the challenges of one child, who was maimed on the job in his slaughterhouse.
13. Arts Reporting
Rolling Stone “How a High School Mariachi Team Triumphed in Uvalde” Julyssa Lopez
Another great year for strong coverage of Broadway, film, music, literature, and the cultures that attend those art forms. Rolling Stone takes the prize this year with a story that was moving, educational, important, and graceful. Kudos to the magazine for tracking down this happy example of music uplifting a broken community.
14. Business Feature
Bloomberg Businessweek “The Hunt for Deep-Sea Treasure” Kit Chellel, Olivia Solon, Jonathan Browning
A brilliantly written deep dive into the world of underwater wreck hunting. The reporting team brought together insights on international maritime laws, sea mapping technology and the extraordinary role of a shadowy hedge fund manager. With extensive research, the story delivered a definitive look at the future of oceanic mapping, one of the last unexplored realms on Earth.
15. Business Investigative Reporting
The New York Times “Alone and Exploited” Hannah Dreier
Such an impressive selection within the category; great journalism is alive and well. The New York Times Alone and Exploited stood out for its well sourced, deeply reported work showing the human face of child labor and migrant struggles in the face of big business and government bureaucracy. The narrative techniques keep the reader interested and invested to the end.
16. Opinion Writing
Daily Beast “America to Families With Alzheimer’s: You’re on Your Own” Deborah Copaken
This deeply personal and at times emotional opinion piece shows clear time and effort devoted to both its research and its writing. Opinion writer Deborah Copaken seeks to open a wider conversation on dementia, making the case that affordable Alzheimer’s healthcare coverage in the US should be considered a human right.
17. Science, Technology, Medical or Environmental Reporting
Bloomberg News “Bad Medicine” Bloomberg Staff
You’ll never look at generic drugs the same way after reading Bloomberg’s investigation showing how contaminated medicines cheaply made in India were sold worldwide due to failures in global pharmaceutical and government regulation – including by the FDA. The deeply reported series involved 250 interviewed sources, detailed documents and independent sample testing to expose how chemotherapy drugs in Colombia, Ethiopia and India, poisoned cough syrup in Gambia, and infected eye drops in the United States blinded, maimed, injured, and killed hundreds of people around the world, especially in developing countries. As a result, Congress is examining FDA conduct and CVS and Walgreens pulled medicines from their shelves.
18. Sports Reporting
Rolling Stone “The Lost Children of Football” Alex Morris
This is a captivating story that focuses on one person but explores the broader impact of athletics in our society and health. It is what award-winning journalism and notable sports journalism represents: a well-researched and well written article exploring an off the field topic that is connected to what happens on the field in games across the country. This sports journalism does what great stories also do: provides a public service with information about an issue all players and their families should know about.
19. Spot News Photo
Associated Press “War in Gaza” Fatima Shbair
This timely and dramatic trio of photos captures a spectrum of the horrors of war as Israel retaliates against Hamas militants for their violent October 7 attack on its citizens. An overview shows explosions from Israeli airstrikes wreaking havoc on Gaza City, while heart-wrenching closeups of an injured child pulled from rubble and a widow mourning over the bodies of her husband and child depict the devastating impact of the conflict on innocents.
20. Feature Photo
Associated Press “Afghanistan: Crippled by War” Ebrahim Noroozi
Ebrahim Noroozi’s photographs of the effects of the war in Afghanistan were the photos that we could not stop talking about, especially the picture of the children staring at the shiny red apple. Their eyes say it all. But you could spend hours with these photos trying to take in each and every detail. They tell a powerful story.
21. Sports Photo
Newsday “The Throwbacks, Vintage “Base Ball” on Long Island” Thomas A. Ferrara
The quality, clarity and framing of this sports photojournalism transports the viewer right to these competitions. They capture the emotion and intensity of the sport these men recreate on their own fields of dreams that took place long ago. The photos tell a story all by themselves of a different style of baseball that’s played in these games and as one judge put it – made me wish I could have been there to watch.
22. Multimedia, Interactive Graphics and Animation
ABC News “ABC News Digital: The Power of Water” ABC News Digital Staff
ABC News combined beautifully produced videos, photos, graphics and text stories to tell how climate change is threatening fragile water resources and causing rising sea levels in flashpoints around the world, from a fast-growing city in Utah, to Puerto Rico, to the Nile in Egypt and right here in New York City. What resulted was a truly multimedia, immersive experience that captured the urgency of the moment and told us something new.
23. Digital Innovation
Reuters “The Bat Lands” Reuters Staff
This stunningly told and beautifully presented series utilized myriad multimedia elements, including animation, video, graphics, photography and scrollytelling, to comprehensively convey the threat to humankind. Every digital element was clear, vivid and accessible. The reporters and editors faced innumerable challenges, from the scope of the work, to far-flung locales, to reticence from government officials. This meticulously reported, deeply engaging series has the potential to spur change in the world. A near flawless piece of journalism with a reverberating impact.
24. Radio or Audio Spot News Reporting
No Winner
25. Radio or Audio Feature Reporting
Inc. Business Media “Computer Freaks” Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan, Joshua Christensen, Sofie Kodner, Nicholas Torres, James Jackman
Narrator Christine Haughney Dare-Bryan pulls the cover off the internet for a detailed look at its founding as a military intelligence tool through its evolution into the central tool of contemporary communication and commerce. Her story is personal as well as historic and political: her father was an Army major who ran the Arpanet, the Defense Department’s foray into linked computing, and the grandfather of the current internet.
26. Radio or Audio Investigative Reporting
NBC News “Letters from Sing Sing” Dan Slepian, Preeti Varathan
A compelling, heartbreaking and inspirational investigation that explores the harsh realities of wrongful incarcerations, and the very real flaws in our criminal justice system. Well written and well produced, the story has the listener invested from the first minute to the end. The story was told with skill and compassion.
27. Digital Video Reporting
The New York Amsterdam News “Be-Loved” Andre Lambertson, Brent Joseph, Damaso Reyes
This is such a raw and open discussion about gun violence and generational trauma that had us glued to the screen. The perspective in this short documentary is often underrepresented when it comes to violence in communities that are neglected by elected officials. The journalists made the most of incredible access to this community and the multiple voices that propelled the story. Be-loved is someone we won’t forget.
28. Local Television Spot News Reporting
Spectrum News NY1 “Damaging Rain Storm” Spectrum News NY1 Staff
With memories of Hurricane Ida’s deadly remnants still vivid after two years, NY1 reporters fanned out across the city in September to send back images of flooded streets, subways, homes and an airport terminal as another torrential storm hit New York. NY1’s reporting and forecasting gave New Yorkers all the news they needed to cope with the city’s fifth wettest day.
29. Local Television Feature
WNBC-TV “There Are No Mistakes“ Michael DelGiudice, Andrew Siff
Andrew Siff lovingly weaves his artistic words with natural sound and compelling video to show viewers how a non-profit builds self-esteem and creates joy for aspiring weavers with neurodivergent minds. Beautifully crafted, like the art that Siff features in his story.
30. Local TV Series or Investigative Reporting
Spectrum News NY1 “In Need of Care: Mental Illness Behind Bars” Spectrum News NY1 Staff
What sets this story apart is its unwavering commitment to exposing the truth. Spectrum News NY1 obtained exclusive video footage, providing viewers with a never-before-seen glimpse into the harsh reality of Rikers Islands’ mental health units. Their dedication to transparency is evident as they navigated obstacles, including the Department of Correction’s refusal to release crucial footage. By shining a light on the story of Erick Tavira, the piece prompts a critical examination of broader issues surrounding mental health care in incarceration settings.
31. National TV Spot News Reporting
ABC News “Heartbreak and Hope, David Muir Reporting From Turkey” ABC World News Tonight with David Muir and Nightline
This ABC News crew took up the daunting challenge of covering a catastrophic earthquake in a remote corner of Turkey, traveling days by car just to get to the site. Their cameras documented numerous rescues, including a 10-day-old baby buried nearly 90 hours next to its dead mother, and the periodic calls for silence as rescuers listened for signs of life in the debris that was once apartment buildings filled with people asleep in their beds.
32. National TV Feature
CBS Sunday Morning “CBS Sunday Morning: Dog Mountain” Martha Teichner, Dustin Stephens, Emanuele Secci, Efrain Robles, Rand Morrison
Every entry in this category was extraordinary. Sunday Morning hit on all high marks. Photography, writing, pace, subject matter. It’s not something you can control. It is something you can identify. There was not one mis-step in this piece. Compellingly written, this story shows its compassion and touches the hearts of anyone who has ever had and lost a dog. The story reveals love and loss on several levels in such beautiful yet unexpected ways that make this so very memorable. It is a beautiful piece.
33. National TV Series or Investigative Reporting
Scripps News “Scripps News Investigates: Ukraine’s Stolen Orphans” Scripps News Investigates, Jason Bellini, Linda Pattillo, Dmytro Horyevoy, Scott McGhee, Alex Brauer, Max McClellan, Steve Turnham
This was a thorough analysis of an ongoing war crime. Key Points; The archival research that went into this is admirable. How journalists identified abducted children used for propaganda on Russian television and seeing text messages from before the orphanage was captured was also extremely effective storytelling. This is a difficult topic, but extremely important. A compelling investigative piece of international significance.
34. The Mosaic Award
ABC News “Nightline – Am I Next? Gay and Targeted in Uganda” Nightline Staff
ABC News gave us a beautiful, albeit tragic snapshot of a community that is under attack for being gay in Uganda. They illustrated the stakes, pulled at our heartstrings and did a great job finding people who were affected by the issue.
35. The Les Payne Award for Coverage on Communities of Color
ABC News Studios IMPACT x Nightline “Never Made it Home: The Story of Tyre Nichols” ABC Staff
“Never Made it Home” offered an intimate profile of Tyre Nichols’ life and those he left behind after being killed by police. With comprehensive access and research, it showed how high-ranking decisions made such abuses possible, highlighting the wider systemic dysfunction through the story of a man whose loss left an emotional toll on his community.
36. Public Service Award
NBC News Digital “Lost Rites” Mike Hixenbaugh, Jon Schuppe, Rich Schapiro, Blayne Alexander
Weaving together stories of grief and outrage with a sensitive and respectful approach, NBC News’ “Lost Rites” unveils a systemic failure that affected many parts of the country. This series shed light on an otherwise underreported issue, led to policy changes and helped bring closure to those who suffered loss.