The Herald picks up five awards as excellence in journalism celebrated

An investigation that revealed the NRL’s top referee had a gambling problem, photographs capturing the Bondi Beach terror attack, and a profile of Australia’s cardboard king are part of the Herald’s award-winning coverage celebrated at the Kennedy Foundation’s Excellence in Journalism awards.

The awards, across 37 total categories, were announced at a ceremony at Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse on Friday night.

Senior sports reporter Chris Barrett won the Outstanding Sport Reporting category for an investigation revealing rugby league’s most high-profile referee, Ashley Klein, had a $400,000 gambling problem , which the code knew about for four years while letting him continue to officiate matches at the top level.

Photographer Edwina Pickles won the Outstanding News Photography category for her coverage of the Bondi Beach terror attack in December.

Deputy state topic editor Michael Ruffles won the Outstanding Three Headlines category. Among his submissions was “The lying, the Ferrari wish and $400,000 in cash in the wardrobe” , which related to chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont’s coverage of former bankrupt Warren Jack’s “fanciful” explanations to a Sydney court during a dispute over unpaid loans.

Cartoonist Matt Golding picked up the Outstanding Cartoon award for “Playing Trump”, which depicted Russian President Vladimir Putin passing the dice to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the pair play a board game called “Trump” with North Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Jane Cadzow won Outstanding Feature Writing for “In The Box Seat”, her Good Weekend profile of cardboard king Anthony Pratt , the boss of Visy packaging and one of Australia’s richest men, published in the Herald and The Age .

The Age’s veteran crime reporter, John Silvester, also won Outstanding Columnist for his regular Naked City column lifting the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld.

The Herald was nominated for a total of 20 awards , the most of any news organisation in Australia, winning five categories.

Herald editor Jordan Baker said she was enormously proud of the publication’s winners and finalists.

“The recognition of the Herald across so many areas – sport reporting, feature writing, headlines, photography and cartoons – illustrates the depth of talent in our newsroom.

“It is also a reflection of the Herald’s commitment to serving our subscribers and telling Sydney’s stories,” Baker said.

The foundation said the 2026 awards attracted a record number of entries.

“It’s been another bumper year for excellent Australian journalism, and there’s no greater honour than to receive a Kennedy for your work,” Kennedy Foundation chair Carl Dumbrell said.