Journalists from around the world joined the interactive Gerald Loeb Awards virtual event, where the 2020 winners were announced, and two career achievement honorees were celebrated during the live show. The Gerald Loeb Awards are among the highest honors in journalism, recognizing the work of journalists whose contributions illuminate the world of business, finance and the economy for readers and viewers worldwide.
The event featured a unique 3D environment developed by Pixel Canvas. Attendees could explore interactive elements of the environment, including areas where they could listen to synopses of entries from all finalists and join group viewing rooms to text and video chat during the show.
Tyler Mathisen, co-anchor of CNBC’s “Power Lunch,” served as the master of ceremonies for the live show. Antonio Bernardo, dean of UCLA Anderson School of Management and chairman of the G. and R. Loeb Foundation, welcomed Loeb Awards honorees and all attendees. Throughout the show, competition category announcements were voiced by Frank Mottek, senior money anchor for KNX-CBS Los Angeles.
The Gerald Loeb Awards show included presentations of two special awards for career contributions to journalism. The Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, Lionel Barber, the former editor of the Financial Times, joined live from the United Kingdom. The Lawrence Minard Editor Award honoree, Alessandra Galloni, global managing editor for Reuters, participated live from Rome.
In addition, winners of 12 competition categories were named, and those journalists were able to join the show and give their acceptance remarks live.
The 2020 Loeb Award recipients:
Audio
“Amazon: Behind the Smiles” — Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX
Will Evans, Katharine Mieszkowski, Taki Telonidis, Rachel de Leon, Kevin Sullivan, Najib Aminy, Andrew Donohue, Esther Kaplan, Matt Thompson, John Barth, Al Letson, Melissa Lewis, Hannah Young, Byard Duncan, David Rodriguez, Mwende Hinojosa, Jim Briggs, Fernando Arruda and Reveal staff
Beat reporting (tie)
“Boeing's 737 MAX Crisis” — Seattle Times
Dominic Gates, Mike Baker, Steve Miletich and Lewis Kamb
“How PG&E Burned California” — Wall Street Journal
Katherine Blunt, Russell Gold, Rebecca Smith, Renée Rigdon, Yaryna Serkez and Dave Cole
Breaking news
“Crash in Ethiopia” — New York Times
Hadra Ahmed, Hannah Beech, Selam Gebrekidan, David Gelles, James Glanz, Thomas Kaplan, Natalie Kitroeff, Jack Nicas, Norimitsu Onishi, Dionne Searcey, Kenneth P. Vogel and Zach Wichter
Commentary (tie)
“America’s Broken Health Care System” — Kaiser Health News
Elisabeth Rosenthal
“A Secret Life of Your Data” — Washington Post
Geoffrey A. Fowler
Explanatory
“Death by a Thousand Clicks” — Fortune and Kaiser Health News
Erika Fry and Fred Schulte
Feature
“Planet Fox” — New York Times
Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg
International
“WhatsApp International” — Financial Times
Mehul Srivastava, Tom Wilson, Tim Bradshaw and Robert Smith
Investigative
“Exploited” — New York Times
Michael H. Keller, Gabriel J.X. Dance and Nellie Bowles
Local
“Profiting from the Poor” — MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica
Wendi C. Thomas, Deborah Douglas, Maya Miller, Beena Raghavendran and Doris Burke
Personal finance and consumer reporting
“The TurboTax Trap” — ProPublica
Justin Elliott, Paul Kiel, Ariana Tobin and Lucas Waldron
Video
“‘Zone Rouge’: An Army of Children Toils in African Mines” — NBC News Investigative Unit
Cynthia McFadden, Christine Romo, Lisa Cavazuti, Bill Angelucci and Daniel Nagin
Visual storytelling
“Clear Takeover” — Tampa Bay Times
Tracey McManus and Eli Murray
