The following 2020 Gerald Loeb Awards finalists were chosen from more than 485 entries submitted in all mediums by local, regional and national outlets and individual journalists:
AUDIO FINALISTS
“The Shrink Next Door” – Bloomberg and Wondery
Joe Nocera, Krista Rypl, Francesca Levy, Jared Sandberg, Katie Boyce, George Lavender, Marshall Lewy, Hernan Lopez and Maya Kaufman
“The Antitrust Trilogy” – NPR’s Planet Money
Kenny Malone, Jacob Goldstein and Julia Simon
“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 FINALISTS
“The Price You Pay” – Houston Chronicle
Jenny Deam
“Boeing’s 737 MAX Crisis” – The Seattle Times
Dominic Gates, Mike Baker, Steve Miletich and Lewis Kamb
“The WeWork Delusion” – The Wall Street Journal
Eliot Brown, Maureen Farrell, Liz Hoffman, David Benoit and Anupreeta Das
“How PG&E Burned California” – The Wall Street Journal
Katherine Blunt, Russell Gold, Rebecca Smith, Renée Rigdon, Yaryna Serkez and Dave Cole
BREAKING NEWS FINALISTS
“Crash in Ethiopia” – The 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
“Uber’s IPO” – The Wall Street Journal
Maureen Farrell, Eliot Brown, Cara Lombardo, Corrie Driebusch, Scott Austin, Stephanie Stamm and Rolfe Winkler
“Four Turbulent Days in August” – The Washington Post
Damian Paletta, Heather Long, Rachel Bade, Jeff Stein, Phil Rucker, Josh Dawsey, Felicia Sonmez, Jonnelle Marte and Robert Costa
COMMENTARY FINALISTS
“America’s Broken Health Care System” – Kaiser Health News
Elisabeth Rosenthal
“Sparking the Next National Conversation” – Los Angeles Times
Michael Hiltzik
“A Secret Life of Your Data” – The Washington Post
Geoffrey A. Fowler
“Commentary by Catherine Rampell” – The Washington Post
Catherine Rampell
EXPLANATORY FINALISTS
“Death by a Thousand Clicks” – Fortune and Kaiser Health News
Erika Fry and Fred Schulte
“Goodbye Big Five” – Gizmodo
Kashmir Hill, Myra Iqbal, Dhruv Mehrotra and Andrew Couts
“California Bullet Train Mismanagement” – Los Angeles Times
Ralph Vartabedian
“Dairyland in Distress” – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Rick Barrett, Maria Perez and Lee Bergquist
FEATURE FINALISTS
“Planet Fox” – The New York Times
Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg
“Can a Burger Help Solve Climate Change?” – The New Yorker
Tad Friend
“Is Amazon Unstoppable” – The New Yorker
Charles Duhigg
“15 Months of Fresh Hell Inside Facebook” – WIRED
Nicholas Thompson and Fred Vogelstein
INTERNATIONAL FINALISTS
“WhatsApp International” – Financial Times
Mehul Srivastava, Tom Wilson, Tim Bradshaw and Robert Smith
“China Surveillance” – The New York Times
Paul Mozur, Sui-Lee Wee, Chris Buckley, Austin Ramzy, Jonah M. Kessel and Melissa Chan
“The Hunt for Asia’s El Chapo” – Reuters
Tom Allard
“Chocolate’s Secret” – The Washington Post
Peter Whoriskey, Rachel Siegel, Steven Mufson and Salwan Georges
INVESTIGATIVE FINALISTS
“Out of Gear: A Detroit Free Press Investigation” – Detroit Free Press
Phoebe Wall Howard
“Exploited” – The New York Times
Michael H. Keller, Gabriel J.X. Dance and Nellie Bowles
“Show of Force” – USA TODAY and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Brett Murphy, Nick Penzenstadler and Gina Barton
LOCAL FINALISTS
“Arizona’s Next Water Crisis” – The Arizona Republic
Rob O’Dell and Ian James
“Profiting from the Poor” – MLK50: Justice Through Journalism and ProPublica
Wendi C. Thomas, Deborah Douglas, Maya Miller, Beena Raghavendran and Doris Burke
“The Bad Bet” – ProPublica Illinois and WBEZ
Jason Grotto, Dan Mihalopoulos and Sandhya Kambhampati
PERSONAL FINANCE & CONSUMER REPORTING FINALISTS
“The New Debtors Prisons” – ProPublica
Lizzie Presser and Anjali Tsui
“The TurboTax Trap” – ProPublica
Justin Elliott, Paul Kiel, Ariana Tobin and Lucas Waldron
“Reversal of Fortune” – USA TODAY
Nick Penzenstadler and Jeff Kelly Lowenstein
VIDEO FINALISTS
“Recovering from Rehab” – Fault Lines and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting
Shoshana Walter, Amy Julia Harris, Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Paul Abowd, Laila Al-Arian, Andrew Donahue, Amanda Pike and Matt Thompson
“Trump’s Trade War” – FRONTLINE PBS and NPR
Rick Young, Laura Sullivan, Emma Schwartz, Fritz Kramer, Emily Crawford and Cat Schuknecht
“‘Zone Rouge’: An Army of Children Toils in African Mines” – NBC News Investigative Unit
Cynthia McFadden, Christine Romo, Lisa Cavazuti and Bill Angelucci
“Huawei Staff Help Governments to Spy on People” – The Wall Street Journal
Clément Bürge, Sharon Shi and Josh Chin
VISUAL STORYTELLING FINALISTS
“Polluted by Money” – The Oregonian
Mark Friesen, Beth Nakamura, Teresa Mahoney and Rob Davis
“Clear Takeover” – Tampa Bay Times
Tracey McManus and Eli Murray
“Boeing’s Deadly Failure” – The Wall Street Journal
Elliot Bentley, Merrill Sherman, Mariano Zafra, Andrew Tangel, Andy Pasztor, Robert Wall and Mark Maremont
“WSJ Graphics Portfolio” – The Wall Street Journal
Elliot Bentley, Yaryna Serkez, Joel Eastwood, Kara Dapena, Robert Wall, Keach Hagey, Lucas I. Albert, Sarah Krouse, Shalini Ramachandran, Thomas Gryta and Patrick Thomas
The Loeb Awards virtual event will take place on Thursday, Nov. 12.
The winners will be announced in an interactive 3D environment via a browser-based platform called Pixel Canvas. The event will be free for all attendees, but there will be an option to donate to the Loeb Foundation when registering for the event.
The virtual environment will offer sponsorship and tribute opportunities in limited areas of the 3D venue.
