Honors a single story or a series of explanatory reporting that provides insight and understanding of a significant and complex subject.

Jump to:

• Micro Division — Winner: The Shoestring
• Small Division — Winner: Suncoast Searchlight
• Medium Division — Winner: El Tímpano
• Large Division — Winner: Honolulu Civil Beat

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Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Micro division

The Shoestring

“There’s a Lot of Money in Death”: Funeral Home Consolidation Hits Western Mass by Jonathan Gerhardson

In western Massachusetts, funeral home consolidation is making things tougher and more expensive for grieving families. The larger companies are buying local funeral homes, often retaining the original business names, and increasing prices for services and burials — but not being transparent about what’s going on. 

“This is a strong example of explanatory journalism that clearly breaks down a complex and often overlooked industry,” a judge wrote. “The story goes beyond individual experience to show how funeral home consolidation works, why it is happening, and what it means for consumers.”

Read the Winning Work

There’s a Lot of Money in Death: Funeral Home Consolidation Hits Western Mass Oct. 28, 2025

Finalists

• Toledo Free Press, Condemned: Riverside Mobile Home Park series, Stephen Zenner

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Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Small division

Suncoast Searchlight

Power and Profit by Josh Salman, Derek Gilliam, Kara Newhouse

This investigative series uncovers and explains how an increasing number of privately-run special districts wield government-level power and fuel a higher cost of living for many Floridians — to developers’ benefit. Community development districts pass costs along to homeowners, who have little say over how essential infrastructure such as water utilities is managed. The series spurred legislation that aims to change this system.

The project stands out for including a “first-of-its-kind database” and “deep reporting coupled with strong, clear writing,” a judge wrote. 

“The fact that legislation has been proposed to change this system is a testament to the power of the reporting done here.”

Read the Winning Work

Gran Paradiso battle reveals how developers control Florida’s fastest-growing communities April 18, 2025

Power and profit: Developers gained government status, then got bonds to build big May 2, 2025

Power and Profit: How special district bonds divided a Sarasota-area neighborhood May 23, 2025

Power and Profit: Developers build the dream, homeowners pay the debt June 6, 2025

Want a new home on the Suncoast? It likely comes with developer debt July 25, 2025

Finalists

• The Journal, A Truer Picture of Homelessness in Kansas, Stefania Lugli
• The Journal, Complicating Immigration Narratives in Kansas, Roy Wenzl
• Richmondside, A Historic Teachers’ Strike, Jana Kadah
• NowKalamazoo, Bad ‘News’: Mysteries, Misrepresentation, and Misinformation, Andrew Minegar, James Sanford
• New Mexico In Depth, Inside New Mexico’s First Diversion Program for People Who Aren’t Competent to Stand Trial, Ted Alcorn
• Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk, Grassroots Air Monitoring Helps People Track Pollution In Their Own Backyards. Those Efforts Are Under Threat in Louisiana, Illan Ireland

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Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Medium division

El Tímpano

These new state and federal policies will reshape health care access for immigrants in 2026 by El Tímpano staff

The federal immigration crackdown and related policies increasingly leave undocumented immigrants with few healthcare options. These patients may delay or avoid care before turning to emergency rooms or community clinics as a last resort. The article also spotlights the emotional toll people bear as they navigate a shrinking social safety net. 

El Tímpano also produced an explainer about relevant new state and federal policies that would affect healthcare access for undocumented immigrants. The news outlet published the information in English and Spanish. It also distributed content in Mam, a Mayan language, through a distribution partner.

Read the Winning Work

As health care contracts in Trump era, undocumented immigrants run out of options Oct. 24, 2025

El Tímpano and Radio B’alam Tsc

These new state and federal policies will reshape health care access for immigrants in 2026 Jan. 8, 2026

Finalists

• New York Focus and Columbia Journalism Investigations, Innocence Ignored, Ryan Kost, Willow Higgins, Oishika Neogi, Curtis Brodner
• The War Horse, Terminating Treatment, Leah Rosenbaum
• Berkeleyside, Zone Zero: Helping Berkeley Hills Residents Prevent Tragedy, Alex Gecan, Joanne Furio

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Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism – Large division

Honolulu Civil Beat

A Tragedy Explodes, by Honolulu Civil Beat staff

Six people died in what became Hawai’i’s deadliest fireworks accident in the state’s history. The casualties included, according to Civil Beat, “a 3-year-old and his mother. Two sisters in their 60s. A 23-year-old woman just starting her adult life. A young man who had just become a father.”

“Two dozen others were seriously or critically injured, still scarred physically and psychologically,” the news outlet reported. 

Civil Beat investigated the deadly explosion as well as the other causes, such as lax regulation and enforcement of laws restricting fireworks. 

“This reporting on fireworks not only documents a devastating tragedy with clarity and humanity, but also exposes systemic failures in enforcement that allowed the dangers of using fireworks to persist,” a judge wrote. “It is rare to see a direct line between investigative work and measurable public impact, and this coverage stands as a compelling example of journalism serving both accountability and the public good.”

Read the Winning Work

A Fireworks Explosion Shattered Their Lives. Will Hawaiʻi Learn From It? Dec. 29, 2025

Honolulu Has Been Struggling To Regulate Fireworks For More Than A Century Jan. 20, 2025

Is It Time To Say No To Fireworks In Hawaiʻi? Hundreds Say ‘Enough Already’ Jan. 24, 2025

Finalists

• The Narwhal and the Winnipeg Free Press, How a Trade War Could Hurt Farmers on Both Sides of the Canada-U.S. Border, Julia-Simone Rutgers
• The Hechinger Report, How the Trump Administration Gutted Education Research, Jill Barshay
• Type Investigations and High Country News, Lights Out, Emma Foehringer Merchant, Maria Parazo Rose
• The Connecticut Mirror, Two Families, One Child: the Case that Reshaped Foster Parents’ Rights in Connecticut, Ginny Monk