The Miami Herald and WLRN News won first place Monday night at the annual Esserman-Knight Journalism Awards, securing the top honor for a year-long joint investigation into the Brightline passenger rail system.
The prestigious awards, which celebrate excellence in investigative and public service reporting across South Florida, were presented at Florida International University’s Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Performing Arts Center. The event was hosted in collaboration with FIU’s Lee Caplin School for Journalism and Media and Press Forward South Florida.
This year marked the seventh year of the awards and the sixtth time WLRN has been honored.
The winning first-place collaboration — The “Killer Train” investigation — revealed that Brightline — a privately operated, higher-speed train promoted as a model for the future of American rail — was the deadliest major passenger train in the United States. Since 2017, nearly 200 people have been killed by Brightline trains. That’s an average of one death every 13 days of service.
The team’s reporting proved false the widely accepted Brightline narrative that most of the dead were suicidal, or were drivers evading downed gates. Through a deep, original analysis of federal data for every railroad in the country, the Herald and WLRN shed light on multiple factors that make Brightline uniquely dangerous. They also found that, despite the death toll — and partly because of it — nearly $500 million in taxpayer funding has gone toward Brightline, undermining the company’s promise to be entirely privately funded. At the same time, critical safety measures have been delayed for years.
Those producing the series were WLRN reporters Daniel Rivero and Josh Ceballos; Herald reporters Brittany Wallman, Allison Beck, and Aaron Leibowitz; and, Susan Merriam and Shradha Dinesh, both from McClatchy, Miami Herald's corporate parent. The reporting team took home a $10,000 prize.
“If you want to know what a community values, look to see what they celebrate. This week in South Florida, our community’s standing ovation went to journalists, whose brave, rigorous work changes lives, changes laws, and ultimately changes futures. We’re grateful to work with the Esserman family and the Knight Foundation to recognize outstanding journalism year after year,” said Rebecca Fishman Lipsey, president and CEO of The Miami Foundation.
"WLRN is so honored by the recognition from the Esserman-Knight Journalism Award," said Sergio Bustos, Vice President for News at WLRN. "It's so gratifying to have the support of the Esserman family and Knight Foundation.
Monday night's awards for the Herald/WLRN joint project comes only weeks after the series won a national award from Investigative Reporters & Editors, the nation’s most prominent investigative journalism organization, and was named as finalists for the 2026 Pulitzer Prize, the most coveted award in American journalism.
READ MORE: Journalism excellence: WLRN/Miami Herald Brightline series wins IRE award, Pulitzer Prize finalist
Monday's night's also honored acclaimed Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, who received this year’s Alberto Ibargüen Excellence in Journalism Award — a special distinction reserved for an outstanding journalist and leader.
Brown was recognized for her "groundbreaking reporting that exposed Jeffrey Epstein's systematic abuse of young women and the failure of the criminal justice system to protect them." Her initial work on the Epstein scandal won first place in the inaugural year of the Esserman-Knight awards, and she was recently honored by the Pulitzer Board with a special citation.
The annual awards are part of a commitment made by Ronald and Charlene Esserman and their family “as a way to herald the importance of a free press and fortify journalism’s crucial role in ensuring democratic freedoms.” Ron Esserman built a network of auto-related businesses in South Florida after first moving to Miami in 1968. He passed away in 2020.
A distinguished panel of volunteer jurors — comprising professional journalists, educators, and community leaders — selected the winners from more than 50 nominations and 15 finalists. Submissions were evaluated based on their depth of reporting, storytelling quality, inclusion of community perspectives, and documented impact.
The Miami Herald also secured the $5,000 second-place prize for an investigation revealing how "hidden government records prevented prospective home buyers from learning the flooding history of properties until after a sale was completed." After analyzing more than 16,000 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reports, the Herald's reporting "prompted state lawmakers to approve legislation requiring greater disclosure and transparency of previous flood damage."
The series was reported and written by Herald reporters Alex Harris and Susan Merriam.
Third place ($2,500) went to a partnership between the Miami Herald and the Florida Trib, a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom, for exposing questionable school bus ticket citations issued to local motorists.
A team of Herald reporters — Claire Healy, Ana Claudia Chacin, Shirsho Dasgupta, Ana Ceballos, Churchill Ndonwie, Ben Wieder, Syra Ortiz Blanes and Verónica Egui Brito — produced the series.
The judges also recognized three $1,000 honorable mentions:
- Shira Moolten and Angie DiMichele, of the The Sun Sentinel for reporting on domestic violence.
- Amelia Orjuela Da Silva, reporter for The Miami Times,for an investigation into "broken promises stemming from a $5 million Formula 1 community benefits package to residents of Miami Gardens."
- The Miami Herald for a year-long look into federal and state immigration crackdowns. The reporters were Claire Healy, Ana Claudia Chacin, Shirsho Dasgupta, Ana Ceballos, Churchill Ndonwie, Ben Wieder, Syra Ortiz Blanes and Verónica Egui Brito.
Finalists for this year's awards represented a diverse cross-section of regional media, including NBC 6 Investigates, the Coconut Grove Spotlight, and the Sun Sentinel.
