81st Annual Silurians Awards Honor Excellence in Journalism in Tri-State Area
Fifteen categories covering print, broadcast and online news are recognized.
By Michael S. Serrill
“They haven’t given us food, they haven’t given us medicine. We’re cold. There are people who’ve been here for 10, 15 days. We’re just waiting.” That’s a quote from an inmate held last summer in the detention center for captured immigrants at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. He was speaking on one of two videos smuggled out of the center and obtained by The City Reporter, the probing online news outlet, (formerly The City), which provides some of the best reporting on every municipal topic.
The findings from the video were part of “NYC: Nation’s Capital of Immigration Courthouse Arrests,” a series of stories on the poor treatment of immigrants arrested by ICE and the Border Patrol in New York City and detained at 26 Federal Plaza before being shipped to a larger detention center or deported. One revelation in the package: In 2025, the great bulk of immigrant arrests in New York were not made at Home Depots or other such locations, but outside the federal courtrooms where immigrants reported for scheduled appointments to clarify their status.
The series, by Haidee Chu and Gwynne Hogan, is one of two winners of this year’s President’s Award, Silurian President Aileen Jacobson’s selection of the best of the best in the 2026 Excellence in Journalism competition.The second President’s Choice award went to NorthJersey.com/The Record for two great stories, one about the failure to carry through on prosecution of clergy sex abusers, and a second on New Jersey’s troubled group-home system.
“These investigations are deserving of the Silurians Press Club’s top honors because they represent fearless investigative reporting that exposed hidden abuses of power and produced significant public consequences,” Jacobson said. “Together, these entries embody the very best of watchdog reporting: persistent and painstaking work that uncovers the human consequences of institutional policies and practices and makes a strong case for change.”
The two media organizations that garnered the most Medallions couldn’t be more different: The New York Times, with its global audience, which won four Medallions and three Merit Certificates, and the scrappy City Reporter, which won three Medallions. Other winners ranged from Newsday with two Medallions and three Merits, to Streetsblog with one Medallion and one Merit, to New York Focus and The Forward, which each pulled in one award.
This year’s Excellence in Journalism Awards attracted entries from around the region in 15 categories. The emphasis in the judging was on local content and impact. Beyond the President’s Awards, the Silurian award winners covered triumphs and scandals, politics, business, science, photography, sports and the arts. Here are the winners.
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Michael S. Serrill, Co-Chair of this year’s awards competition, has labored as a reporter, writer and editor for a variety of publications, including Time, Business Week and Bloomberg Markets.
Scenes From a Celebration (of Excellence)
And the Medallions Go To...
President's Choice
“NYC: Nation’s Capital of Immigration Courthouse Arrests,” a series of stories by Haidee Chu and Gwynne Hogan of The City Reporter won the President's Choice award for investigating and exposing the poor treatment of immigrants arrested by ICE and the Border Patrol in New York City and detained at 26 Federal Plaza before being shipped to a larger detention center or deported.
One revelation in the package: In 2025, the great bulk of immigrant arrests in New York were not made at Home Depots or other such locations, but outside the federal courtrooms where immigrants reported for scheduled appointments to clarify their status.
The The City Reporter's’ series on immigrant detention put faces on the Trump Administration’s war on law-abiding migrants and asylum-seekers who showed up for routine court proceedings. They were arrested on the spot and whisked away to ICE facilities. By relying on old-fashioned gumshoe reporting, leaked videos and keen data analysis (that included assistance from a Brooklyn mathematician who uncovered a method to track courthouse arrests), Chu and Hogan proved—despite on-the-record denials by The Department of Homeland Security—that, by late July 2025, 415 people had been held for days or weeks at 26 Federal Plaza in dirty, crowded detention rooms and without consistent access to lawyers, food or bathrooms.
When a federal judge ordered ICE to curtail such detentions and improve conditions, he cited the evidence that was exclusively reported by Chu and Hogan in The City Reporter.
Breaking News
In “New York’s Evening of Terror,” the Bloomberg News team issued a series of swift and authoritative reports after a gunman attacked the offices of the National Football League at 345 Park Avenue. These reports were the first to suggest the gunman’s motive was a fixation with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a brain disease tied to repeated blows to the head that the gunman himself had suffered as an amateur football player. Bloomberg also mapped the scope of the attack that shook many corporate offices in the building, including the investment firm Blackstone, where an executive was killed.
As the first news organization documenting the shooter’s motive, Bloomberg’s fact-based coverage helped shift the public understanding of the event and dispelled false information, including word of anti-Muslim conspiracies, that was spreading online.
The Merit Certificate goes to Business Insider for its comprehensive coverage of the trial of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Feature News
The Medallion goes to The New York Times’ Joseph Goldstein for “The Firefighter with OCD and the Vaccine He Believed Would Kill Him.” In this riveting, first-time-told tale, Goldstein describes the psychological tightrope that Timmy Reen walked for 20 years, serving as a firefighter while privately battling severe Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and a paralyzing fear of contamination. With profound empathy, Goldstein chronicles how after two decades of successfully masking his fears from fellow firefighters, by way of a string of exhausting rituals— exquisitely detailed by Goldstein—Reen was forced into retirement for his refusal to submit to a mandated Covid vaccine, a needle prick that presented an internal terror. The judges called Goldstein’s work “a shining example of exceptional storytelling.”
The Merit certificate goes to Dionne Searcey of The New York Times for “Lonely at the Top,” the story of how the gifted Chef Nduvo Salaam labors in obscurity in a deluxe but mostly empty restaurant on the 100th floor of Central Park Tower, one of Manhattan’s new, super-tall residences for the elite.
Science & Health Reporting
The Medallion goes to Sam Mellins of New York Focus for “Investigation Into Leading Edge Insurers.” In this multi-part series, Mellins exposed Leading Edge, an unscrupulous New York State health insurance company with a history of fraud and shocking mistreatment of doctors and patients. Mellins’ investigation describes how the state government entrusted to a little-known company the health and well-being of hundreds of thousands of its low-income healthcare workers. Mellins spent many weeks navigating complex regulatory filings, reviewing lawsuits, analyzing billing records and finding and interviewing former employees and beneficiaries of the company to document how Leading Edge profited by underpaying doctors and shortchanging patients. Mellins’ reporting produced results. Following publication of the series, the state contractor responsible for hiring Leading Edge terminated its service as an insurance provider.
The Merit Certificate goes to Erika Fry of Fortune for “How Big Data and an A-List Board Turned Struggling NYU Langone into a $14 Billion Hospital Powerhouse.” Fry deftly blended sharp analytical detail and vivid color into an engrossing story about a medical center that’s doing good while also doing well.
Environmental Reporting
Mariana Simões of City Limits wins the Medallion for “New York Approved a Major Gas Pipeline Expansion. What Does It Mean for Climate Change?” In this well-crafted multimedia investigation, City Limits climate reporter Simões offers an in-depth look at New York’s controversial approval of a plan by the Iroquois Pipeline Company to substantially increase the flow of fracked natural gas, in contravention of New York State’s landmark 2019 climate bill, which mandates moving away from fossil-fuel use.
Proponents say the increase, enabled by the construction and operation of heavy-duty gas-compression stations that are required to amp up the flow, is an essential, safe, relatively short-term measure to meet the state’s growing power needs. Critics strongly challenge such claims, as Simões reports, and underscore the fact that the state is in clear violation of its legal obligation to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and transition almost entirely to clean, renewable energy sources by 2050.
Compelling graphics and interactive maps by Patrick Pauser help sharpen the narrative and stress the urgency of stemming the release of greenhouse gases along with the health-endangering pollutants tied to stepped-up natural-gas transit.
The Merit winner in this category is Shantal Riley, a freelance environmental reporter and contributor to PBS’s Science Friday, for “Small City Pays a Price for PFAs.”
People Profiles
Ben Sisario of The New York Times takes home a Medallion for his searing pre-trial portrait of Sean “Diddy” Combs. As a New York Times music reporter, Sisario covered many of the highs and lows of Combs’ unruly life. His profile weaves these and new revelations together, portraying Combs in unsparing terms as a person who repeatedly got away with vicious behavior and became a wealthy star because powerful people chose to overlook his alleged crimes and cruel misconduct. As Sisario writes: “Many now say they saw the seeds of his undoing long ago, in the destructive recklessness that had been enabled by years of escaping consequences.”
The Merit winner is Alex Vadukul of The New York Times for “The Last Lucille Roberts,” a wistful portrait of the last survivor of what was once a beloved New York-area chain of more than 50 women-only gyms.
Sports Reporting & Commentary
The Medallion goes to Kevin Armstrong’s “Diamond in the Dirt,” which transports the readers of NJ Advance Media into the world of financial intrigue swirling around a young potential NBA player. Armstrong’s long look at Airious “Ace” Bailey traced the basketball player’s path from his childhood in Chattanooga to Rutgers basketball and the National Basketball Association.
This nine-month investigation by Nj.com, part of NJ Advance Media, showed how a sketchy, would-be sports agent, Omar Cooper, insinuated himself and his Lifestyle Sports Agency into the financial affairs of the young hoop star. Digging deeply into Cooper’s background, Armstrong uncovered his felony indictments, his federal tax liens, and some seemingly shady deals. After Armstrong’s story was published, Bailey fired Cooper. This story vividly illustrates the effects that the huge flow of money has had on what used to be amateur scholastic sports.
Television/Video: Feature News
Those familiar with our awards won’t be surprised at the name of the Medallion-winner in this category: Walt Kane, of News 12, who claims Silurian awards almost every year. His winner this time is a piece called “Deadly Force,” a riveting investigation into a series of controversial police shootings in New Jersey. Kane uncovered disturbing evidence that New Jersey is failing in its efforts to reduce the number of deadly police shootings, especially in cases of people suffering mental health crises.
New Jersey, Kane reports, touts its program requiring mental health professionals to pair with police when they are called to these emergencies. But Kane’s investigation reveals that, in the vast majority of cases, the mental health professionals arrive only after the emergency is over or don’t arrive at all. Kane’s reporting also revealed that the State’s system of investigating deadly police shootings is so shrouded in secrecy that the loved ones of those killed by police often know little more at the conclusion of an investigation than they did on the day of the incident.
Television/Breaking News
In mid-afternoon on Thursday, April 10, last year, a helicopter on a sightseeing tour of Manhattan crashed into the Hudson River near Jersey City. Within minutes of the accident, ABC’s Channel 7 Eyewitness News took to the air itself with extensive live coverage. Across several harrowing hours, viewers saw video of the helicopter tumbling from the sky and heard from eyewitnesses in lower Manhattan and Jersey City describing the helicopter breaking apart, its tail and propeller detached, the propeller still twirling in the sky as the fuselage plunged into the river. All aboard the chopper were killed, including the pilot and a family of five from Spain, including three children.
The pilot for Channel 7’s news helicopter, himself shaken by the accident, pointed out that such crashes are rare, a catastrophic event in which a pilot is helpless.
Arts & Culture
The Medallion co-winners in Arts & Culture Reporting are Michael Kimmelman and Holland Cotter of The New York Times for their reviews of the renovated Frick Museum. The Frick has long been one of the priceless jewels of New York City, though it seldom got the attention poured on its cousin, The Met, a half mile away on Fifth Avenue. So, when the Frick closed for renovation during the COVID pandemic, there was concern that its beauty and intimate scale would be diminished. Kimmelman, reviewing the architecture, and Cotter, evaluating the display of the art, captured in elegant, pointillist prose what a glory the Frick remains and how the renovation actually improved the visitor’s experience.
The Merit award in Arts & Culture goes to Simi Horwitz of The Forward for a recollection of the groundbreaking movie Hester Street and the late Joan Micklin Silver, its writer-director.
Editorial / Public Service / Commentary
The Medallion for Public Service goes to Newsday, which assigned a team of reporters and editors to conduct the most ambitious and sustained examination of traffic safety ever undertaken on Long Island, culminating in this award-winning piece,
“Dangerous Roads.”
In America’s oldest suburb, cars are a way of life. Newsday’s investigation concluded that automobiles should not be a cause of death at a rate far exceeding the rest of New York State. Newsday’s year-long series combined in-depth data journalism with moving and personal story-telling, awarding Long Islanders with a true public service.
The Merit Certificate for Public Service goes to a series of alarming stories by Jan Ransom, Bianca Pallaro and their New York Times’ colleagues for exposing the brutal beatings and murders of inmates by guards in the New York State prison system.
Photography
Breaking News Photography
The Medallion goes to The City’s
Ben Fractenberg for “Arrests at 26 Federal Plaza Shock Migrants at Immigration Check-Ins.”
Fractenberg was the photographer for the team that won President’s Award honors for “NYC: Nation’s Capital of Immigration Courthouse Arrests.” His winning photo captures a weeping woman holding her infant at lower Manhattan immigration headquarters as ICE officers are taking her husband into custody. Fractenberg got an award-winning shot, despite being pushed and jostled by the crowd around the crying woman.
The Merit award goes to Newsday photographer Howard Schnapp for “A Final Salute,” in which he captures hundreds of firefighters giving a final salute to a fallen Long Island colleague.
Feature News Photography
The Medallion goes to The New York Times for Jonah Markowitz’s compelling and very moving photo essay on death in the New York subways. The photos accompanied a story headlined “They Witness Death on the Tracks and Then Struggle to Get Help,” about Transit Authority drivers who have struck and killed people on the tracks and cannot get help for their post-traumatic stress.
Markowitz’s photos take us deep into the subway system, to the stations and tracks where the tragedies occur, showing us the city cops, firemen and Transit Authority personnel who must deal with them. He also takes us into the lives and the homes of the subway drivers who struggle to get help for the psychological trauma of being involved in these accidents, crimes and suicides.
The Merit award in Feature News Photography goes to Newsday’s Alejandra Villa Loarca for “The FDNY Remembers,” a dynamic image that bears witness to the dignity of firefighters marching in New York’s Saint Patrick’s Day Parade, carrying 343 American flags, commemorating the 343 FDNY members they lost on 9/11.
Sports Photography
The Medallion in Sports Photography goes to Noah K. Murray of Newsday for
“Walk Off Win.”
The image captures the exhilaration of New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso after his 9th inning sacrifice fly propelled the Mets to a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field on May 12, 2025. Being ready with the camera when dramatic events take place is what great sports photography is all about.
The winner of the Merit award for Sports Photography is Thomas A. Ferrara of Newsday for “Go Play In the Rain,” a shot that captures the resolve of Mets pitcher Clay Holmes as he continues to throw through near torrential rain in their game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field on May 14, 2025.
