The G. and R. Loeb Foundation Inc. and UCLA Anderson School of Management announced the 42 competition finalists for the 2026 Gerald Loeb Awards for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism.
The finalists represent outstanding work across 13 competitive categories, recognizing reporting and storytelling that advanced public understanding of business, finance and the economy. Winners will be announced live at the Loeb Awards Banquet and Celebration on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at Capitale in New York City.
Created to encourage and recognize reporting on business, finance and the economy that informs and protects investors and the public, the Loeb Awards are considered the highest honor in business journalism in the United States.
2026 Competition Finalists
AUDIO
IVF Disrupted – Bloomberg News
Jackie Davalos and Shawn Wen
The Economist’s Scam Inc. – The Economist
Sue-Lin Wong, Sam Colbert, Alizée Jean-Baptiste, Claire Read, Rosie Blau, Weidong Lin and John Shields
Shipwreck: How a Captain, Company, and Culture Sank the SS El Faro – Maeve McGoran, Sugar23 and Audible
Maeve McGoran, Caitlin Pierce, Ruxandra Guidi, Mike Mayer, Anna Stitt, Martha Little, Liam Billingham, Joshua Lash, Mischa Stanton and Gary Gunn
BEAT REPORTING
Crypto’s Impact – The New York Times
David Yaffe-Bellany
Meta’s Secrets of Success – Reuters
Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham
STAT’s Reporting on FDA Chaos – STAT
Lizzy Lawrence
BREAKING NEWS
Liberation Day Frenzy – Financial Times
Staff of Financial Times
Kimmel Goes Dark – The New York Times
John Koblin, Michael M. Grynbaum, Brooks Barnes, Benjamin Mullin, Stuart A. Thompson, Jim Rutenberg and James Poniewozik
Liberation Day – The New York Times
Ana Swanson, Tony Romm, Patricia Cohen and the Staff of The New York Times
COMMENTARY
Columns by Michael Hiltzik: Debunking the False Narratives of 2025 – Los Angeles Times
Michael Hiltzik
The New New World – The New York Times
Li Yuan
The Financial Engineering Fueling the AI Race – The Wall Street Journal
Jonathan Weil
EXPLANATORY
A.I. Delusions – The New York Times
Kashmir Hill
The Business of Babies – The Wall Street Journal
Katherine Long, Ben Foldy, Dana Mattioli, Emily Glazer, Lingling Wei, Sara Randazzo and Amy Dockser Marcus
The Militarization of Space – The Washington Post
Christian Davenport
FEATURE
Texas Oil Boom Spawns a Toxic Crisis of the Industry’s Own Making – Bloomberg News
Kevin Crowley, David Wethe, Christine Buurma, Dave Merrill, Cedric Sam, Joe Ryan, Alex Newman, Josh Hersh and Tom Gibson
The Deadliest Workplace in America – The Washington Post
Todd Frankel and Andrew Van Dam
The Great Egg Heist – The Washington Post
Jessica Contrera, Jenn Abelson, Maria Alconada Brooks, Kelley Benham French, Kainaz Amaria and Talia Trackim
INTERNATIONAL
Made in America, Watched Worldwide – The Associated Press
Dake Kang, Yael Grauer, Aniruddha Ghosal, Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Sam Mednick, Michael Biesecker, Serginho Roosblad, David Goldman and Marshall Ritzel
Power Moves – The New York Times
Keith Bradsher, Brad Plumer, Somini Sengupta, David Gelles and Harry Stevens
Dark Fleets – Reuters
Paul Carsten, Prasanta Kumar Dutta, Lucy Craymer, Gleb Stolyarov, Anna Hirtenstein, Stefanie Eschenbacher, Shariq Khan and Stephen Eisenhammer
The Trump Crypto Story: Pardon and Profit – The Wall Street Journal
Angus Berwick, Rebecca Ballhaus, Patricia Kowsmann, Josh Dawsey and Caitlin Ostroff
INVESTIGATIVE
The True Cost of Data Centers – Business Insider
Staff of Business Insider
Money Trail at the White House – The New York Times
Eric Lipton, David Yaffe-Bellany, Cecilia Kang, Tripp Mickle and the Staff of The New York Times
Zero Trust: Inside Microsoft’s Cybersecurity Failures – ProPublica
Renee Dudley, Doris Burke and Michael Mishak
LOCAL
Exposing Misconduct in L.A. County’s Historic $4-Billion Sex Abuse Settlement – Los Angeles Times
Rebecca Ellis
Killer Train – The Miami Herald and WLRN News
Brittany Wallman, Aaron Leibowitz, Daniel Rivero, Joshua Ceballos, Susan Merriam, Shradha Dinesh and Allison Beck
The Institute – Spotlight PA
Wyatt Massey and Charlotte Keith
PERSONAL FINANCE & CONSUMER REPORTING
The Cost of Denial – NBC News
NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas
College Pricing Schemes – The New York Times
Ron Lieber
This Company Charges Disabled Vets Millions, Even After VA Said It’s Likely Illegal – NPR and The War Horse
Chris Arnold, Caley Fox Shannon, Quil Lawrence, Leah Rosenbaum, Robert Little and Mike Frankel
Burned – San Francisco Chronicle
Megan Munce, Susie Neilson and Sara DiNatale
VIDEO/LONGFORM
Can’t Look Away – Bloomberg Businessweek and DCTV
Matthew O’Neill, Perri Peltz, Olivia Carville and Kristin Powers
Inside the Secretive World of America’s AI Data Centers – Business Insider
Staff of Business Insider
We Mapped Out Gaza’s Deadly Food Economy – Business Insider
Reem Makhoul, Robert Leslie, Marco Secci, Erica Berenstein, Yasser Abu Wazna, Leo Dawson, Ahmed Al Danaf, Ju Shardlow and Sam Fellman
CBS News 60 Minutes: The Family Farm – CBS News/60 Minutes
Cecilia Vega, Michael Rey, Jaime Woods, April Wilson, Katie Jahns, Don Lee, Eric Kerchner, Dan Bussell, Ben McCoy and Trevor Nordeen
VIDEO/NEWS
CBS News 60 Minutes: The Price of Life – CBS News/60 Minutes
Scott Pelley, Aaron Weisz, Ian Flickinger, Michelle Karim, Joe Schanzer, Don Lee, Sean Healey, Rob Fortunato and Mark LaGanga
How the U.S. Automotive Industry Fuels Lead Poisoning in Nigeria – The Examination
Taylor Turner, Will Fitzgibbon, Ashleigh Joplin, Finbarr O’Reilly, Grace Ekpu, Quadri Taiwo, Daron Taylor, Romina Colman and Fernanda Aguirre
KARE 11 Investigates: Recovery Inc., The NUWAY Files – KARE 11-TV
A.J. Lagoe, Kelly Dietz, Steve Eckert, Gary Knox and Ron Stover
VISUAL STORYTELLING
End of The Line: How Saudi Arabia’s Neom Dream Unraveled – Financial Times
Alison Killing
Visualizing Trump’s Trade War – The New York Times
Mark Boyer, Agnes Chang, Keith Collins, Lazaro Gamio, Sarah Kerr, Isabelle Qian, Pablo Robles, Tony Romm, Ana Swanson and Daisuke Wakabayashi
The Trump Business Empire: A Visual Examination – The Wall Street Journal
David Uberti, Juanje Gómez and Kara Dapena
