Forbes, ProPublica and NY Times win biz Deadline Club awards

Forbes and a joint project between ProPublica and the New York Times were the winners in this year’s Deadline Club awards in the business journalism categories.

The best business feature winner was Dan Alexander and Matt Drange of Forbes for “Trump Tenants.”

The judges wrote:

They report numerous possible conflicts of interest, involving tenants who do business with the federal government, and on at least one apparent violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, of a bank that’s majority-owned by the Chinese government that has offices in Trump Tower.  Because the President retains full ownership of the organization, the rents enrich him.

Finalists in that category were Geoff Colvin of Fortune for “The End is Near” and Peter Elkind of Fortune and ProPublica for “The Billion-Dollar Loophole”

In the business investigative reporting category, the winner was Charles Ornstein and Katie Thomas of ProPublica and The New York Times for “Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Crisis.”

The judges wrote:

This investigation changed the way major cancer care centers, not just Sloan, operate, cleansing them of potential conflicts that could impact patient treatments. The top medical executive at Sloan left in less than a week after publication and a number of other top docs and executives also fessed up to their own failures-to-disclose and potential conflicts. The Times reporters took a publicly available database (thanks to earlier expose’s) and went to town with it.

Finalists in the investigative reporting category were the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, The Associated Press and NBC News Investigative Unit for “Implant Files” and Suzy Khimm and Laura Strickler of NBC News Digital for “Under Ben Carson, More Families Live in HUD Housing that Fails Health and Safety Inspections.”

In addition, Tiffany Kary and Christopher Cannon of Bloomberg News won in the Newspaper or Digital Enterprise Reporting category for “Cancer-Linked Chemicals Manufactured by 3M Are Turning Up in Drinking Water.”

The judges wrote:

Kary and Cannon’s story for Bloomberg on the cancer-causing chemicals leaked into Minnesota drinking water by 3M is a gripping piece of enterprise and public service journalism. It combines rigorous sourcing with in-depth and revealing interviews, told through vivid prose. It makes the science accessible, while shining a spotlight on the human actors at the center of the story.

The 2018 Deadline Club Awards contest had 555 entries across 36 award categories. It is run by the New York chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

All of the winners can be found here.