@bizjournalism

The Reynolds Center Horizontal Logo In Color

Two Minute Tips

A stellar track record:

Barlett & Steele Award Winners

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, who have worked together more than four decades, receiving two Pulitzer Prizes, two National Magazine awards, and a long list of other journalism awards.

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.

Global/National Publications

2023
Gold
This three-part series exposed bribery and corruption in the cannabis industry in California and showed the state government’s negligence in clamping down on marijuana companies and individuals operating illegal cannabis farms. The report highlights how California’s Proposition 64, signed in 2016, was expected to address the illegal cannabis market and address numerous violence and environmental degradation. The investigation exposed human rights abuses of cannabis workers, who were mostly immigrants, and documented over a dozen deaths of cannabis growers and workers poisoned by carbon monoxide.

Global/National Publications

2023
Silver
The collaboration presented deep dives into common, under-reported, and bad-faith practices within the health insurance industry that gravely impacted the lives of the insured. In their meticulous research, the team of reporters identified three key ways health insurance actors can put patients at massive physical and financial risk – sometimes out of reach of any existing laws.

Global/National Publications

2023
Bronze
The team of reporters probed whether government regulatory officials were investing in shares whose value might rise or fall depending on decisions made by them or their bosses. The challenge for the reporters in this case was to learn what stocks the regulators bought or sold and when. In most cases, there was no easily available record of what the investment holdings of officials in the regulatory system were at relevant times. The Journal revealed that more than 2,600 top federal officials traded stocks in companies they helped oversee, often in violation of the law.

Regional/Local Publications

2023
Gold
Following a tip about exponentially rising case numbers of silicosis in Latino workers the journalists began their joint investigation. Silicosis is a deadly lung disease caused by inhalation of fine silica dust, but was virtually unknown for centuries – until the recent popularity of artificial stone countertops. The reporters discovered that demand for this popular new product, coupled with poor workplace protections for stone workers in the Los Angeles area, created a fatal trend.

Regional/Local Publications

2023
Silver
The investigation revealed how companies like Google and Amazon received considerable tax breaks from local cities and gobbled up precious water resources. These pieces show how the initial triumph of landing a huge contract with a large company like Amazon in a rural, sparsely populated area was deflated by the sacrifice and ethical lapses that came along with it: conflicts of interests with part-time politicians, increased power demands that translate into dirtier electricity, and the secrecy behind the massive amounts of water required for cooling servers in a region grappling with an extended drought.

Regional/Local Publications

2023
Bronze
This series detailed how private equity firms are standing in the way of homeownership for Black and Brown communities in Metro Atlanta and making renting a nightmare for their tenants. These firms quickly purchase blocks of homes in neighborhoods with cash offers that push out other buyers and convert them into rentals, leaving many individuals with no other option but to rent from them. Then, as landlords, the firms make it nearly impossible for tenants to reach them for maintenance requests when their homes begin to deteriorate.

Outstanding Young Journalist

2023
Gold
This investigation examines the harrowing reality of a for-profit hospice industry that preys on vulnerable individuals in order to make money. Kofman’s reporting found that an industry that began as a visionary notion to allow terminally ill patients to die with dignity in their own homes has since turned into a for-profit hustle plagued by exploitation.

Global/National Publications

2022
Gold
In their seven-part podcast series, a team of reporters teamed up to expose the limitations of government oversight within the troubled-teen treatment industry. In the last six years, 20,000 kids from all over the country have been sent to more than 100 privately run treatment programs in Utah. This investigation found that the state took a hands-off approach to regulate these facilities, which enabled rampant abuse.

Global/National Publications

2022
Silver
This investigation examines how more than 130 federal judges broke a 1974 law that requires federal judges to recuse or excuse themselves from a case involving parties in which they or their family members have legal or equitable interest. WSJ examined 700 judges who held stocks with large companies and tens of thousands of cases from 2010 to 2018 and found 129 federal district judges and two other federal plaintiff judges to be in violation of the law.

About Donald Barlett & James 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.”

Two men dressed in nice suits stand for a portrait
Image from barlettandsteele.com

Years

Categories

Places

Search

Get Two Minute Tips For Business Journalism Delivered To Your Email Every Tuesday

Two Minute Tips

Every Tuesday we send out a quick-read email with tips for business journalism. Sign up now and get one Tuesday.