Barlett & Steele Awards

The Best in Investigative Business Journalism

How Winning Journalists Do It

Interested in how journalists create award-winning work? Check out some of the interviews our graduate students have had with past winners discussing the challenges they faced, story inspiration, and advice they have for students who want to do investigative work.

Written work

Uncovering 3M’s secrets: Behind Sharon Lerner’s investigation on forever chemicals

December 10, 2024
Alessandra De Zubeldia

2024 Barlett & Steele Award winners share the guiding force behind their investigations: People.

December 3, 2024
Alessandra De Zubeldia

Business Insider puts Corizon’s Texas two-step bankruptcy under microscope

November 22, 2024
Alessandra De Zubeldia

Some homeowners find sale-leasebacks a risky proposition: Investigation by award-winning young journalist 

November 13, 2024
Alessandra De Zubeldia

AP’s dynamic duo strikes again: Here’s how they did it

November 6, 2024
Alessandra De Zubeldia

Data-driven investigation reveals questionable investments by thousands of Federal officials

February 6, 2024
Sahara Sajjadiankhah

About The Awards

Barlett and Steele Award Medallion

Since their inception in 2007, the Barlett & Steele Awards have blazed a high-visibility path of excellence in rewarding incisive business reporting that “tells us something we don’t know.”

The awards are named for the illustrious investigative business journalist team of Don Barlett & Jim Steele. Donald Barlett and James Steele worked together for more than four decades, first at The Philadelphia Inquirer (1971-1997), where they won two Pulitzer Prizes and scores of other national journalism awards, then at Time magazine (1997-2006), where they earned two National Magazine Awards, becoming the first journalists in history to win both the Pulitzer and its magazine equivalent, and most recently were contributing editors at Vanity Fair (2006-2017).
The Washington Journalism Review said of Barlett and Steele: “They are almost certainly the best team in the history of investigative reporting.”

Administered by The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism, the Barlett & Steele awards for Gold, Silver and Bronze each fall honor journalists and news organizations ranging in size from local to international.

“We’ve been so impressed with the quality of these stories that year after year have delved into the stories that nobody knew about–or shed light on areas they thought they knew about,” said Jim Steele.

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