Journalism Awards

The Nieman Foundation presents annual journalism awards to news organizations and journalists who have produced exceptional work in several categories. By honoring journalistic excellence, the foundation helps focus attention on innovative research, reporting and storytelling, and shares the lessons learned from groundbreaking reporting projects in print, on air, and online.

During a ceremony in May 2025, the Nieman Foundation presented three of its awards together: the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism, the Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism and the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence.

Recent winners:

Established in 1967, the annual $20,000 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism honors investigative reporting of stories of national significance where the public interest is being ill-served. The award honors the memory of journalist Worth Bingham. a 1954 Harvard graduate.

ProPublica’s “Life of the Mother” series, which revealed how state abortion bans in the U.S. have led to preventable deaths, won the 2024 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. Reported by Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Cassandra Jaramillo, with photography by Stacy Kranitz, the investigation exposed the serious and sometimes fatal consequences of abortion restrictions that neither the federal government nor the states have tracked. The series told the stories of five pregnant women who died after they did not receive lifesaving care in states that ban abortion, as well as the story of a woman forced to continue a life-threatening pregnancy in Tennessee, where abortion is outlawed but little post-natal support is offered.

The reporting showed the human toll of state abortion bans, many enacted after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and spurred a number of reforms. Bingham Prize judge Sarah Varney said: “These stories were a turning point for Americans’ understanding of the seismic shift in women’s lives in the post-Dobbs era.”

The Taylor Award for Fairness in Journalism honors news coverage by American journalists and news organizations that demonstrates exceptional balance and impartiality. Members of the Taylor family, who published The Boston Globe from 1872 to 1999, established the $10,000 award in 2001. Two finalists receive $1,000 each.

In addition to winning the Worth Bingham Prize, “Life of the Mother,” the ProPublica series that revealed how state abortion bans in the U.S. have led to multiple preventable deaths, won the 2024 Taylor Family Award for Fairness in Journalism. The investigation uncovered the serious and sometimes fatal consequences of abortion restrictions in the United States that neither the federal government nor states have tracked.

The 2024 Taylor Award judges also selected two finalists:

Established in 2008, the I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence recognizes journalistic independence and honors the life of investigative journalist I.F. Stone. The award is presented annually to a journalist whose work captures the spirit of independence, integrity and courage that characterized I.F. Stone’s Weekly, published from 1953 to 1971. The award includes a $1,500 honorarium.

Mark Trahant won the 2025 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence in recognition of his lifelong dedication to journalism and Native American storytelling, A member of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of Idaho, Trahant has worked for and led newsrooms in the American West for more than 50 years. He directed the revival of Indian Country Today after the news organization briefly stopped publishing in 2017. He rebranded the company as ICT, increased its coverage of Indigenous communities across North America and expanded the staff from three to more than 30 employees by 2024. He also served as president of the Native American Journalists Association, chairman of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and public information officer at the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C.

After learning of his selection for the Stone award, Trahant said: “The importance of Indigenous journalism grows as this country gets larger. It’s impossible to understand this country’s history — and its future — without including the people who have a 10,000-year history. So many of the problems we face today seem new, until you know how it fits into a longer arc. I am honored to accept this I.F. Stone Medal. I see it as a call to do more.”

The Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism recognizes the work of courageous journalists and newsrooms around the world. Nieman Fellows in the class of 1964 established the award to honor the Nieman curator who retired that year, and new winners are chosen each year by fellows who are studying at Harvard. The award includes a $2,500 honorarium.

The Nieman class of 2025 selected +972 Magazine, an independent, nonprofit news organization run by a team of Palestinian and Israeli journalists, as the winner of the 2025 Louis M. Lyons Award for Conscience and Integrity in Journalism. The fellows recognized the newsroom’s “vital, human-centered reporting on the war in Gaza and the courage of +972’s journalists on the ground.” They added: “With its unflinching commitment to facts in a highly contentious, often dangerous landscape, +972 Magazine has worked relentlessly with great moral conscience and deep integrity to document the human cost of war and occupation.  +972’s investigative work has documented how military actions, including the use of artificial intelligence and drones, have resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians, as well as the targeting of working journalists in Gaza. At a time when dialogue has all but collapsed, +972 Magazine’s binational team proves that journalism can build bridges and narrow divides by showcasing perspectives that are overlooked or marginalized by mainstream narratives.”

The J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project was established in 1998 to honor the best in American nonfiction book writing. Co-administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Nieman Foundation, the project is sponsored by the family of the late Mark Lynton, a historian and senior executive at the firm Hunter Douglas in the Netherlands.

Learn more about the J. Anthony Lukas Prize Project.