L.A. Times Wins Two Top Honors in Annual IRE Awards
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The Los Angeles Times earned two honors in the 2025 Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) Awards contest, winning first place in the investigations triggered by breaking news category and national outstanding print/online category. The IRE Awards, which recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year, were announced on Tuesday, May 5.
Times staff won the investigations triggered by breaking news honor for its reporting and investigations around the devastating January 2025 L.A. wildfires. The competition judges praised The Times for its coverage during and after the fires, noting the staff’s unwavering commitment even as many were personally impacted by the disaster. “A tremendous effort of accountability journalism in real time, during a historic and unprecedented disaster,” wrote the judges. “The L.A. Times quickly did exactly what the best journalism does, even in the midst of chaos and a dramatic life and death situation still unfolding in their own city, while some of the newsroom’s own journalists were experiencing direct losses.”
The judges continued, “As flames still burned, ruined homes smoldered, and searches for dead and missing continued, Times reporters sought accountability for lack of available water and resources available but not deployed. The team’s investigation into authorities’ failure to issue timely evacuation orders to parts of Altadena, where a higher number of residents are Black, brought an important dimension of racial inequity to the handling of the fire response that helped inform the civic discourse, and interrogate why certain lives were lost. The team uncovered important revelations, and provided readers with useful, meaningful, on the ground information to help citizens navigate the immediate disaster, hold power accountable for system failures, and investigate how to be better prepared next time.”
Current and former Times staff who contributed to the wildfire coverage includes Terry Castleman, Nathan Fenno, Melody Gutierrez, Matt Hamilton, Ian James, Vanessa Martínez, Brittny Mejia, Paul Pringle, Dakota Smith, Paige St. John, Alene Tchekmedyian, Grace Toohey, David Zahniser, Noah Haggerty, Ruben Vives, Richard Winton, Cindy Chang, Shelby Grad, Monte Morin, Carla Rivera, Sean Greene, Sandhya Kambhampati, Lorena Iñiguez Elebee and Hanna Sender.
Times staff writer Rebecca Ellis’ investigation exposing misconduct in L.A. County’s historic $4 billion sex abuse settlement won the award for national outstanding print/online investigation. The investigation detailed how plaintiffs, in L.A. County’s settlement for sex abuse inside its juvenile halls and foster homes, claimed they received cash to sue the county. The report identified nine people who said they’d been paid by recruiters to sue the county over alleged sex abuse. The law firm representing the plaintiffs categorically denies any wrongdoing. Ellis’ reporting launched an ongoing probe into the historic settlement from county officials and spurred lawmakers to propose new county regulations on soliciting.
The judges lauded the “dogged investigation” and its impact. “It forced public officials to pay attention and respond,” said the judges. “Ellis also details the frustration, disappointment and revictimization of people deserving compensation.”
To learn more about the IRE Awards, visit ire.org.
