FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dec. 18, 2024
Press Contact: Lillian Rizzo
president@newswomensclubnewyork.com
Newswomen’s Club of New York Announces 2024 Front Page Award Winners
The Front Page Awards, presented since 1937 by the Newswomen’s Club of New York, recognizes journalistic excellence among women.
In the last year, the questions and concerns have only grown regarding climate change, women’s health, mental health, gun violence, immigration and the systemic issues facing our communities.
In response, New York-area newswomen reported on these topics with great detail and care – investigating and bringing to life events, conversation and debates from local communities to the national and global stages.
This was never more evident than in the work of New York-area newswomen, some of the most tireless and dedicated journalists, who are recipients of the 2024 Front Page Awards. Investigations into sex trafficking, the state of the art market, the explosive allegations of sexual harassment in real estate, bad air quality in Utah and the difficulties of reentering the job market after being a victim of gun violence are among those recognized this year.
The 87th annual Front Page Awards pay tribute to these exceptional newswomen at local, regional and national outlets across the New York metropolitan area. The gala event to honor winners will be held at the New York Athletic Club on Feb. 4, 2025.
Those wishing to attend the event can purchase tickets here. Those interested in sponsorship opportunities or purchasing a table of 10 should contact treasurer Sasha Padbidri at newswomen@newswomensclubnewyork.com.
Connect with Newswomen’s Club of New York on X at @NYNewswomen, Instagram at @nynewswomenclub, Bluesky at @newswomensclubofny.bsky.social and and on LinkedIn to find out more about this year’s winners and their work.
The Front Page Award for Journalist of the Year goes to Debra Kamin of The New York Times for her outstanding investigative series of articles that revealed the abuses that run rampant in the real estate world, including the industry powerhouse National Association of Realtors. Kamin’s reporting revealed a litany of abuses and misconduct, including sexual harassment and discrimination. Her coverage of the national brokerage, eXp Realty, showed evidence of male agents preying on female colleagues, as well of a pyramid scheme, and led to the New York State comptroller demanding an independent investigation.
The Marie Colvin Award for Foreign Correspondence goes to Caitlin Doornbos of the New York Post. She has embedded with troops and reported on the ground from Ukraine – from battlefields to repair bases – bringing scenes of the war-torn country to the pages of the Post and its local New York readers.
The Ida B. Wells Award Honoring Exceptional Coverage of Communities of Color will go to Marianna McMurdock, staff reporter at The 74 Million. McMurdock’s insightful and in-depth coverage of segregation in the U.S. school system cast a spotlight on continued discrimination and the impact it has on students and their families, especially those who face criminal persecution when trying to get their children a better education.
The Martha Coman Front Page Award for Best New Journalist will go to Shannon Chaffers, an investigative reporter at the New York Amsterdam News. Chaffers helped to produce in a series on the effects of gun violence, and her work showed the financial toll that gun violence survivors face when they have difficulty returning to the workforce. Her reporting unearthed an aspect of gun violence that is little known, despite the topic often being in our daily headlines and conversations.
The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Somini Sengupta, who has built an exemplary journalism career – through a variety of roles in a multitude of locations – over more than 20 years at The New York Times.
Sengupta has worked in more than 50 countries, including 10 conflict zones. She has reported from the Middle East, where she covered the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the rise of ISIS. She has held bureau chief roles internationally, and was the first person of South Asian descent to hold that title in the Times’ South Asia bureau.
The journalist – who was born in India and raised in Canada and California – got her start at The Times covering Brooklyn borough news. Most recently, Sengupta has reported on climate change from a global perspective, and has focused on climate diplomacy and the international efforts to adapt the world’s food systems.
FULL LIST OF FRONT PAGE AWARD WINNERS
AUDIO
Feature Reporting: Feature: Colleen DeBaise, Sue Williams, Nusha Balyan and Noel Flego, The Story Exchange, “How Do We Deal With Bad Air Quality?”
Investigative Reporting: Karen Shakerdge, for WNYC and The Pulitzer Center, “Imminent Danger: One Doctor and a Trail of Injured Women” – “Episode 1” and “Episode 2”
Audio Production: Golda Arthur, “Overlooked: a podcast about ovarian cancer” – “Season 1: Ovarian Cancer”
LOCAL REPORTING
Feature: Olivia Bensimon, for The New York Times, “Their Asylum Case Seems Strong, But Instead of Hope They Feel Despair”
Investigative Reporting: Tara Rosenblum, Jean Salzarulo, Audrey Gruber and Lee Danuff, News 12 Network, “TURN TO TARA: When Home Hurts”
MAGAZINES
Essay: Arielle Angel, Jewish Currents, “We Cannot Cross Until We Carry Each Other”
Feature: Tessa Stuart, Rolling Stone, “Alabama’s War on Women”
Interview: Kayla Webley Adler, ELLE, “Sanna Marin Is Still Dancing”
Investigative Reporting: Lauren Kirchner, Consumer Reports, “‘Nobody Should Lose Their Child Over a Toy,’” “Cassava-Based Puffs From Lesser Evil and Serenity Kids Contain High Levels of Lead,” “5 Dangerous Products Parents Should Avoid to Keep Their Kids Safe,” “‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Found in Some Milk, Including Organic,” and “‘Non-Toxic’ Labels on Water Beads Are Meaningless”
NEWSPAPERS
Beat Reporting: Julie Wernau, The Wall Street Journal, America’s Mental Health Crisis – “A Lawyer Abandoned Family and Career to Follow the Voices in His Head,” “A Lawyer’s Slide Into Psychosis Was Captured in a WSJ Profile. He Tells Us His Story,” “More Teens Who Use Marijuana Are Suffering From Psychosis,” “Libraries Are the New Front Line in America’s Mental-Health Crisis,” and “U.S. Suicides Reached a Record High Last Year”
Breaking News: Allison Pohle and Patience Haggin, The Wall Street Journal, “‘Is It OK if I Hold Your Hand?’: Inside the Cabin of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282”
Feature: Emma Goldberg, The New York Times, “An Atheist Chaplain and a Death Row Inmate’s Final Hours”
Investigative Reporting: Sandra Peddie, Newsday, “Sex trafficking victim: 'I felt failed by the system'“ and “'I'm scared I'm gonna die': Woman forced into sex work tries to break free”
The Nellie Bly Award for Best Bylined Front Page Story: Gunjan Banerji, The Wall Street Journal, “Amateurs Pile Into 24-Hour Options: ‘It’s Just Gambling’”
ONLINE
Blogs/Newsletters: Fisayo Okare, Documented, “Our City”
Feature: Eden Weingart, The New York Times, “Could Better Buses Fix Your Commute?”
Investigative Reporting: Lila Hassan, Business Insider in partnership with The Trace and Type Investigations, “Armed and untouchable: ICE’s history of deadly force” and “ICE agents ‘don’t fire warning shots'“
Multimedia News Package: Amy Schoenfeld Walker and Elena Shao, The New York Times, Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza - “The Daily Hunt for Food in Gaza,” “Why Isn’t More Aid Getting to Gazans,” “How the U.S. Humanitarian Pier in Gaza Will Work,” “Rafah Operation Pushes Gazans Into Areas With Scarce Aid and Medical Care,” and “Access to Aid in Gaza Was Dire. Now, It’s Worse”
Social Media Video: Maya Eaglin, K.C. Wassman, Jillian Eugenios, and Lauren Nardi, NBC News, “This 3rd grade math teacher charges her students rent”
PHOTOGRAPHY
Breaking News: Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Associated Press, for “Wreckage,” depicting wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge resting on the container ship Dali
Feature: Stephanie Keith, for The New York Times, “Breaking the Ramadan Fast With Some of Brooklyn’s Newest Arrivals”
Feature Photo Editing: Kara Milstein, TIME, “A Town Derailed”
News Photo Editing: Eve Edelheit, The New York Times, “Where the Migrants Who Came to New York Are Living Now”
Photo Essay: Keisha Scarville, for The New York Times, “Is Guyana’s Oil a Blessing or a Curse?”
Portrait Series: Alejandra Villa Loarca, Newsday, “Faces from the West Indian Day Parade”
SPECIALIZED REPORTING
Arts/Entertainment: Katya Kazakina, Artnet News, “The Art Detective”
Business/Finance: Sharon Terlep, The Wall Street Journal, “Behind the Alaska Blowout: a Manufacturing Habit Boeing Can’t Break,” “Boeing’s Urgent Mission to Train Thousands of Rookies How to Build an Airplane,” and “Boeing Is Back in the Spotlight—This Time Over a MAX 9”
Crime/Justice: Ava Benny-Morrison, Bloomberg News, “The Last 72 Hours of Archegos”
Editorial Opinion/Criticism: Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times, “I Saw What a Second Trump Term Could Do to America” - “The Unnerving Changeability of JD Vance,” “Women Have Gotten ‘Too Mouthy,’ Says This Republican Senate Candidate,” and “In Poland, I Saw What a Second Trump Term Could Do to America”
Education: K.C. Wassman, Livia Lenhoff and Jillian Eugenios, NBC News, “‘This is not a safe state for people like me’: Life in Florida as a trans teen,” “‘I don’t know how much longer I can do this': Florida teachers under ‘Don’t Say Gay’” and “For Florida's LGBTQ teens and teachers, the law is a moving target”
Environment: Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times, “Toxic Sludge on America’s Farms” – “Something’s Poisoning America’s Land. Farmers Fear ‘Forever’ Chemicals,” “Her Children Were Sick. Was It ‘Forever Chemicals’ on the Family Farm?” and “Lawyers to Plastics Makers: Prepare for ‘Astronomical’ PFAS Lawsuits”
Housing/Real Estate: Emily Glazer and Katherine Clarke, The Wall Street Journal, Rape Allegations Rock Luxury Real Estate World - “Luxury Real Estate World Rocked by Rape Allegations Against Star Brokers,” “FBI Probing Rape Allegations Against Star Real-Estate Brokers” and “Star Brokers’ Sexual-Assault Allegations Caught Attention of Police, School, Boss”
Immigration: Paola Ramos, Kay Guerrero, Edyra Espriella, Betsy Korona, Laura Conaway, Nikki Egan, Jaclyn Spear and Shelby Vasiluth, MSNBC, “Twice Harmed: Asylum Seekers Face Sexual Violence & Abortion Bans”
Medicine/Health/Fitness: Diane Sawyer, Rachel Scott, Eman Varoqua, Candace Smith Chekwa, Tess Scott Davidson, Christina Ng, Karin Weinberg, Knez Walker, Acacia Nunes, Laura Coburn, Nadine El-Bawab, Desiree Adib, Erin Murtha, Katerina Rosen and Elizabeth Perkin, ABC News Studios IMPACT x Nightline, “On The Brink”
Personal Service: Paulina Cachero and Francesca Maglione, Reporter, Bloomberg News, “College Return on Investment” – “It’s True - The Ivy League Offers a Better Return on Investment” and “Beyond the Ivies: Surprise Winners in the List of Colleges with the Highest ROI”
Politics: Charlotte Alter, TIME, “The Reintroduction of Kamala Harris” and “The Dread Election”
Science/Technology: Katrina Manson, Bloomberg News, “AI in War and Space” - “AI Warfare Is Already Here,” “US Used AI to Help Find Middle East Targets for Airstrikes” and “US Space Force Pauses Generative AI Use Based on Security Concerns”
Sports: Kizzy Cox, CBS Sports, “Beyond Limits: Finding My Voice”
TELEVISION
Breaking News: Antonia Hylton and Laura Kurinsky, NBC News, “NYPD Enters Columbia's Hamilton Hall”
Feature: Jennifer Bisram, CBS News New York, “Long Island Roller Rebels”
Interview: Robin Roberts, Janice Johnston, Eboni Griffin, Gail Deutsch, Kate Hodgson, Susan Welsh, Kaitlin Amoroso, Danielle Genet, Netsanet Negussie, Gina Caruana, Natalie Cardenas, Jocelyn Rogalo, Kayla Starr Simmons, Tiffany Langhorne and Nicole Curtis, ABC News 20/20, “Prisoner in Russia: The Brittney Griner Interview”
Special Programming (Public Affairs or Editorial): Linsey Davis, Jessica Velmans, Chiara Sottile, Sarah Baniak and Alyssa Pone, ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis, “No One to Turn To: Who Guards the Guards?”
Special Reporting Series (Investigative or Enterprise Reporting): Yasmin Vossoughian, NBC News, “How communities in Philadelphia are torn apart by gun violence” and “Family, friends of Philadelphia gun violence victims share stories and hopes for change”
VIDEO
Short Video: Sue Williams, Christina Kelly and Noel Flego, The Story Exchange, “Once NASA’s Dream, a Food Startup Is Making ‘Air Protein’ a Reality”
Feature: Lauren Wilson, K.C. Wassman, Lilly Umana, Jillian Eugenios, Chelsea Adams, and Shalini Sharma, NBC News, “They lost their son in a school shooting, now they're fighting back”
Long-Form Video: Jenny Wagnon Courts, ABC News, “21: Loyal and True”
ABOUT THE NEWSWOMEN’S CLUB OF NEW YORK
The Newswomen's Club of New York, established in 1922, is the only professional organization in the New York metropolitan area dedicated to supporting newswomen. The Front Page Awards, established in 1937, exemplifies the Club’s mission to promote exceptional work by women in the news business and support the highest standards of journalism.