From investigations into financial dealings at the White House to exposés of dangerous workplaces, shadowy oil-shipping networks and the financial forces driving the artificial intelligence boom, some of the year’s most consequential journalism took center stage at the 2026 Gerald Loeb Awards.
Presented by UCLA Anderson School of Management and the G. and R. Loeb Foundation, the awards honored outstanding reporting on business, finance and the economy during an Oct. 8 ceremony in New York City.
Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, received the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Marcelo Prince, investigations coverage chief at the Wall Street Journal, was honored with the Minard Editor Award, which recognizes excellence in business journalism editing.
Journalists and news organizations received awards in 13 categories, with the New York Times earning honors for its coverage of the Trump administration’s trade policies and an investigation into the president’s business dealings and potential conflicts of interest. The Washington Post was recognized for reporting on the militarization of space and dangerous working conditions, while Reuters won for its coverage of under-the-radar fleets transporting oil around the world.
Other winners included the Economist, STAT, the Wall Street Journal, the Miami Herald and WLRN News, the San Francisco Chronicle, Bloomberg Businessweek and DCTV, CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and the Financial Times.
Established in 1957 and administered by UCLA Anderson since 1973, the Gerald Loeb Awards are among the nation’s most prestigious honors for business and financial journalism. They recognize reporting that helps the public better understand the economic forces shaping their lives and holds institutions and decision-makers accountable.
The ceremony, hosted by former CNBC anchor Tyler Mathisen, also included a moment of silence honoring journalists who have been detained or imprisoned, died, or gone missing while doing their jobs.
The 2026 Gerald Loeb Award winners are:
- Audio
Economist, “Scam Inc.”
Sue-Lin Wong, Sam Colbert, Alizée Jean-Baptiste, Claire Read, Rosie Blau, Weidong Lin and John Shields - Beat reporting
STAT, “Reporting on FDA Chaos”
Lizzy Lawrence - Breaking news
New York Times, “Liberation Day”
Ana Swanson, Tony Romm, Patricia Cohen and Times staff - Commentary
Wall Street Journal, “The Financial Engineering Fueling the AI Race”
Jonathan Weil - Explanatory
Washington Post, “The Militarization of Space”
Christian Davenport - Feature
Washington Post, “The Deadliest Workplace in America”
Todd Frankel and Andrew Van Dam - International
Reuters, “Dark Fleets”
Paul Carsten, Prasanta Kumar Dutta, Lucy Craymer, Gleb Stolyarov, Anna Hirtenstein, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Shariq Khan and Stephen Eisenhammer - Investigative
New York Times, “Money Trail at the White House”
Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Cecilia Kang, Tripp Mickle and Times staff - Local
Miami Herald and WLRN News, “Killer Train”
Brittany Wallman, Aaron Leibowitz, Daniel Rivero, Joshua Ceballos, Susan Merriam, Shradha Dinesh and Allison Beck - Personal finance and consumer reporting
San Francisco Chronicle, “Burned”
Megan Munce, Susie Neilson and Sara DiNatale - Video (longform)
Bloomberg Businessweek and DCTV, “Can’t Look Away”
Matthew O’Neill, Perri Peltz, Olivia Carville and Kristin Powers - Video (news)
CBS News “60 Minutes,” “The Price of Life”
Scott Pelley, Aaron Weisz, Ian Flickinger, Michelle Karim, Joe Schanzer, Don Lee, Sean Healey, Rob Fortunato and Mark LaGanga - Visual storytelling
Financial Times, “End of the Line: How Saudi Arabia’s Neom Dream Unraveled”
Alison Killing
Honorable mentions went to the Wall Street Journal for “The Business of Babies” and Business Insider for “Inside the Secretive World of America’s AI Data Centers.”
For more information, visit the Gerald Loeb Awards website.
