Bloomberg News and ProPublica win ONA’s 2026 UF Investigative Data Journalism Award
Bloomberg News and ProPublica are the winners of the 2026 University of Florida Award in Investigative Data Journalism, presented by the Online News Association (ONA), in the Large Newsroom and Small/Medium Newsroom categories, respectively. The awards were presented on Oct.1 at the ONA Online Journalism Awards dinner at the City Winery in New York City.
Bloomberg News won for Zombie Debt, a series documenting how debt collectors revived long-forgotten second mortgages from the pre-2008 housing bubble to strip homeowners of equity — and sometimes their homes — often in violation of consumer-protection laws. The rule-breaking occurred with no consequences because the Trump administration effectively halted an ongoing investigation into the most active firms when it tried to dismantle the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
Bloomberg uncovered a profitable and deceptive playbook built around “zombie mortgages,” old second loans that had disappeared from homeowners’ lives. After the housing market collapsed, debt collectors bought these loans for pennies on the dollar, then resurfaced years later with demand letters and foreclosure threats. They claimed they were owed balances swollen by back interest. Yet, in case after case, records showed borrowers hadn’t received regular statements in years. Some even had tax forms showing the loans had been canceled.
The other finalists in the category were “Standards of Care” by The Boston Globe, “The True Cost of Data Centers” from Business Insider and “Toxic Fumes Are Leaking Into Airplanes” by The Wall Street Journal.
ProPublica won for “What the U.S. Government Is Dismissing That Could Seed a Bird Flu Pandemic.”
After a bird flu outbreak killed 20 million hens and spiked egg prices, farmers suspected the virus was moving on the wind—a theory the federal government failed to investigate. ProPublica did, employing cutting-edge techniques to analyze genomic data and weather patterns to show airborne transmission was plausible, revealing how the government had left farmers ill-equipped to protect their flocks and leaving the nation vulnerable to a pandemic.
ProPublica was able to pinpoint the exact farms where outbreaks had occurred, something the federal government does not publish, allowing them to map and trace the spread of the disease.
The key finding—that farms downwind from an infected egg farm were much more likely to contract bird flu soon after—drew on months of work to get beyond the canned responses to the question of “Why are egg prices so high?”
Other finalists were “A Mississippi death penalty jury was seated. With one Black juror” from Mississippi Today, and “Trump Team Financials” also from ProPublica.
Each winning organization received a $7,500 prize.
The UF award, established in 2014, honors high-impact data journalism that is exceptionally well presented. It is funded through a gift to the University of Florida from the estate of the late Lorraine Dingman.
Category: College News
Tagged: Awards Bloomberg News Investigative Data Journalism Award Online News Association Online News Association UF Investigative Data Journalism Award ProPublica Rick Hirsch
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