FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Jan. 6, 2026
Press Contact: Lillian Rizzo and Shubham Saharan
awards@newswomensclubnewyork.com
Newswomen’s Club of New York Announces 2025 Front Page Award Winners
The Front Page Awards, presented since 1937 by the Newswomen’s Club of New York, recognizes journalistic excellence among women.
During a year in which the news cycle felt both relentless and more consequential than usual, New York area newswomen continued to help the public make sense of a rapidly shifting world. This year’s honorees exemplify clarity, tenacity and accountability across some of the most urgent and complex stories of 2025.
As billionaire Elon Musk’s influence stretched from technology into politics, newswomen brought rigor to stories too often dismissed as spectacle. Their reporting went beyond what was trending to explain why it matters, who holds power, and who bears the consequences.
At the intersection of technology and daily life, New York newswomen scrutinized how artificial intelligence is reshaping everything from policing and surveillance to education, parenting and childhood itself.
This year’s awards also recognize sustained, unflinching coverage of the war in Gaza; our honorees honed in on covering its impacts on people and communities across the globe, as well as the history behind the conflict.
Together, the honorees underscore the essential role of journalism in interrogating power, documenting conflict and helping the public see clearly in times of rapid change.
The 88th annual Front Page Awards pay tribute to these exceptional newswomen at local, regional and national outlets across the New York metropolitan area. The gala to honor winners will be held the evening of Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026, at the New York Athletic Club.
Those wishing to attend the event can purchase tickets here. Those interested in sponsorship opportunities or purchasing a table of 10 should contact Club Treasurers Sasha Padbidri and Luisa Beltran 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 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 Leah Feiger, senior politics editor at Wired, for her work on Wired’s outstanding coverage of Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government following President Trump’s inauguration. Feiger led Wired’s investigative and in-depth reporting with breakneck speed, keeping pace with nonstop news and change for the country.
The Marie Colvin Award for Foreign Correspondence will go to Courtney Kealy, a Middle East reporter for CBS News, whose exemplary coverage spanned much of the region. Kealy’s reporting unpacked the past influences and history behind the current events occurring in the Israel-Hamas war, as well as in Iran and Syria, in her impressive slate of TV segments.
The Ida B. Wells Award Honoring Exceptional Coverage of Communities of Color goes to veteran journalist Cheryl Wills of Spectrum News NY1 for “Saving Sandy Wills: Former Slave and Civil War Veteran Rescued from Unmarked Grave and Reburied with Full Military Honors 135 Years After His Death.” The investigation started when Wills looked into her own ancestry and discovered a number of Black Civil War veterans, including her own great-great-great grandfather, who lay in unmarked graves rather than military cemeteries.
The Martha Coman Front Page Award for Best New Journalist goes to Julia Hornstein, who covers venture capital and defense tech for Business Insider. In a short time, Hornstein has showcased her bench of sources and established herself on a crowded and competitive beat, covering the companies, investors and culture behind tech and artificial intelligence.
The Nellie Bly Award for Best Bylined Front Page goes to Dana Mattioli of The Wall Street Journal for “The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers,” a compelling and deeply researched investigation into the parental practices of one of the most reported-on public figures of the year.
The Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Belinda Luscombe, editor-at-large at Time. Luscombe’s exceptional body of work has spanned three decades at Time, where she has profiled and interviewed some of the most prominent figures in society. Luscombe’s body of work includes profiles of Snoop Dogg and the Pope in 2025 alone, and previously former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and tech exec Sheryl Sandberg, among many others in the past.
The Australian-born journalist has held a variety of roles at Time. In addition to a long list of well-known interview subjects, Luscombe has covered a wide range of important topics and events, including the U.S. education system, childcare and school shootings. Luscombe is also the author of “Marriageology: The Art and Science of Staying Together.”
FULL LIST OF FRONT PAGE AWARD WINNERS
AUDIO
Feature Reporting: Clare Duffy, Rebecca Seidel and Emily Williams, CNN, “Terms of Service with Clare Duffy — Meet the Police Officers Using AI to Draft Police Reports and How AI Generated Police Reports Could Affect You”
Investigative Reporting: T.J. Raphael, Wondery Podcasts | Amazon, “Liberty Lost — Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3”
Audio Production: Jordan Gass-Pooré, NJ Spotlight News and NJ PBS, “Hazard NJ Season 2, Episode 3: Tainted Blood”
LOCAL REPORTING
Feature: Debbie Nathan and Alyssa Katz, THE CITY, “The Terrible Truth About Sherita, Brooklyn’s Beloved Billboard Dinosaur”
Investigative Reporting: Maya Kaufman, POLITICO, “ ‘An unlimited piggy bank:’ Inside a powerful union’s lavish spending,” “House committee requests probe of health care union’s spending,” and “Health care union president ousted in upset election”
MAGAZINES
Essay: Stephanie Zacharek, TIME, “ ‘Clueless' Proved Amy Heckerling Was Brilliant. But It’s Not Her Only Stroke of Genius”
Feature: Charlotte Alter, TIME, “She Says Social-Media Algorithms Led to Her Eating Disorder. Now She’s Suing TikTok and Instagram,” “ ‘Everything I Learned About Suicide, I Learned On Instagram.’ ” and “Inside the Parent-Led Movement For Phone-Free Schools”
Interview: Christina Ray Stanton, The Saturday Evening Post, “A New York Ferry Captain Comes to the Rescue, Again and Again”
NEWSPAPERS
Beat Reporting: Hannah Erin Lang, Ashlea Ebeling, Veronica Dagher, Oyin Adedoyin and Alexandra Citrin-Safadi, The Wall Street Journal, The Price of Parenting – “12 Money-Saving Hacks for Raising Kids, From Clever Parents Who Did It,” “Too Rich for College Aid, Can’t Afford Full Price: How One Family Made It Work,” “Summer Is Endless, and Expensive, When You’re a Working Parent,” “She’s 7 Years Old. Her Parents Are Saving to Support Her When She’s 30,” “Your Kids Are Your Pride and Joy. They Are Also a Tax Break”
Feature (Large Circulation): Dionne Searcey, The New York Times, “At a Deluxe Dining Room on the 100th Floor, a Chef Toils in Obscurity”
Feature (Small Circulation): Amanda D’Ambrosio, Crain’s New York Business, “Hospitals struggle to kick travel nursing habit”
Investigative Reporting: Shannon Chaffers, New York Amsterdam News, “The Housing Barrier: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4”
ONLINE
Blogs/Newsletters: Lingling Wei, The Wall Street Journal, WSJ China Newsletter
Feature Large Newsroom: Jonnelle Marte and Marie Monteleone, Bloomberg News, “The New Americans: Casting Their First Ballots”
Feature Independent Newsroom: Sarah Carr, The Hechinger Report—Supporting premature babies: “Parents of premature babies struggle to get help their children are entitled to” and “After Hechinger story, Illinois passes law requiring hospitals to connect parents of premature babies with life-changing therapies”
Investigative Reporting: Meredith Kolodner, The Hechinger Report—Left Out: “Young kids with and without disabilities can learn side by side. One state has instead kept them apart for years” and “New Jersey sends kids with disabilities to separate schools more than any other state”
Multimedia News Package: Alyssa Katz and Mia Hollie, THE CITY, in partnership with Gothamist, “Meet Your Mayor,” “About the Candidates,” “Surprising Stances in Meet Your Candidate Answers,” “How Thousands and Thousands of New Yorkers Met Their Mayor,” and “How Zohran Mamdani Answered Every Question in THE CITY’s Meet Your Mayor Quiz”
Social Media Video: Aysha Qamar, Brown Girl Magazine, “Sindhu Vee’s Love Letter to Brown Women Everywhere”
Digital Video: Nikki Walker, Sarah Nassauer and Annie Zhao, The Wall Street Journal, “Why Costco Went All In on Kirkland — and How It Paid Off”
Social Media Engagement: Anahita Pardiwalla, NBC News, NBC News Broadcast Channels
PHOTOGRAPHY
News Photo: Angelina Katsanis, for The Associated Press, “Funeral of NYPD Officer Didarul Islam”
Feature: Angelina Katsanis, Reuters, “In Mahmoud Khalil’s Wake”
Photo Essay: Julia Demaree-Nikhinson, The Associated Press, “Trump's Road To—and Return To—The White House,” including photos of a campaign event in Wisconsin, the Inauguration Liberty Ball, young Trump supporters, pet-themed paraphernalia, the campaign bus, a bedazzled dog, the inaugural ball, a behind-the-scenes moment, President Trump’s address to Congress, and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene following Trump’s speech.
Photo Editing: Heather Casey, The New York Times, U.S. Coverage — “What They Took,” “The Eaton Fire Destroyed Their School. They Created a New Wonderland Onstage,” “In an Internment Camp, All They Had Was Baseball. A New Generation Is Back to Play,” “The Coyotes of San Francisco,” and “Capturing a Community in Ruin”
SPECIALIZED REPORTING
Arts/Entertainment Large Newsroom: Cecilia D’Anastasio, Bloomberg, “Riot Games”
Arts/Entertainment Independent Newsroom: Katya Kazakina, ArtNet News, “The Art Detective”
Breaking News: Dawn Lim, Hema Parmar and Amanda Gordon, Bloomberg, “Terror at Blackstone”
Business/Finance Large Newsroom: Colby Smith, The New York Times, Trump's Attack on the Federal Reserve: “ ‘Nobody Likes Chaos’: Businesses and the Fed Wonder What’s Next for the Economy,” “Can the Next Fed Chair Truly Be Independent From Trump’s Influence?” and “Trump’s Plan to Pack the Fed With Loyalists”
Business/Finance Independent Newsroom: Rachel Butt, 9fin, “Clearlake goes on charm offensive after spate of restructurings”
Crime/Justice: Lorena O’Neil, Rolling Stone, “The Life and Mystery of Luigi Mangione”
Editorial Opinion/Criticism: Lydia Polgreen, The New York Times, The Great Migration— “Something Extraordinary Is Happening All Over the World,” “ ‘Everyone Around Me Thinks That I’m Crazy for Wanting to Come Back’ ” and “I Went to Dubai and Caught a Glimpse of the Future”
Education: Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report, How the Trump administration gutted education research—“NAEP, the Nation’s Report Card, was supposed to be safe. It’s not,” “Suddenly sacked” and “Chaos and confusion as the statistics arm of the Education Department is reduced to a skeletal staff of 3”
Environment: Jordan Gass-Pooré, Inside Climate News, “Hazardous: On Meeker Avenue in Brooklyn, How Environmental Activism Plays Out in the Neighborhood,” “Developers See Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal as an Alluring New Waterfront. But for Years, It Stunk” and “Navigating the Troubled Waters of Newtown Creek Means an Environmental Cleanup in Brooklyn and Queens That Will Cost At Least $3.3 Billion”
Housing/Real Estate: Veronica Dagher and Anne Tergesen, The Wall Street Journal, The Ballooning Cost of the American Dream — “One House, Three Owners: The Ballooning Cost of the American Dream,” “This 4-Bedroom Ranch in N.J. Tells You Everything About the Lopsided Housing Market” and “Americans Have $35 Trillion in Housing Wealth—and It’s Costing Them”
Immigration: Jo Napolitano, The 74, “As Immigrant Students Flee in Fear of ICE Raids, Teachers Offer Heartfelt Gifts,” “From TB Tests to Leases, PA District Delays Enrolling Scores of Immigrant Kids” and “‘I Don’t Want Any Light Shining on Our District’: Schools Serving Undocumented Kids Go Underground”
Health care: Shalini Ramachandran and Betsy McKay, The Wall Street Journal, Overmedicated America — “Generation Xanax: The Dark Side of America’s Wonder Drug” and “ ‘Combat Cocktail’: How America Overmedicates Veterans”
Personal Service: Melissa Korn, The Wall Street Journal, “I Finally Listened to My Body. It Saved My Life.”
Politics: Molly Smith, Bloomberg, “Former BLS Chief Recounts Shock of Getting Fired Over Jobs Data”
Science/Technology: Kashmir Hill, The New York Times, Down The A.I. Rabbit Hole: “She Is in Love With ChatGPT,” “They Asked ChatGPT Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling”
Sports: Emma Hinchliffe, Fortune, “Can Cathy Engelbert Handle the Pressure?”
TELEVISION AND VIDEO
Feature Local: Jennifer Bisram and Dana Riccardi, CBS News, “The Exonerated Father: Life After Three Decades in Prison”
Feature National: Erin Moriarty, Erin Cauchi, Sari Aviv and Shoshana Walter, CBS Sunday Morning/The Marshall Project, “CBS Sunday Morning: True ... or False?”
Interview: Norah O’Donnell, Julie Morse and Callie Teitelbaum, CBS News, “CBS Sunday Morning: Ketanji Brown Jackson”
Special Programming: Judy Tygard, Erin Moriarty, Lourdes Aguiar, Stephanie Slifer, Alicia Tejada, Grayce Arlotta-Berner, Charlotte Fuller, Gail Zimmerman and Megan Kelly Brown, CBS News, “48 Hours: Unraveling the Case Against Melissa”
Special Reporting Series: Shawna Thomas, Lilia Luciano, Anam Siddiq, Somitra Butalia, Malak Habbak and Kinjal Patel, CBS News, “Columbia student ‘honey-trapped’ and targeted for deportation”
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, exemplify the Club’s mission to promote exceptional work by women in the news business and support the highest standards of journalism.