Multiple investigations from The Markup have been recognized in a range of categories by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing’s 2022 Best in Business Awards.   

Dara Kerr’s stories documenting attacks on gig workers and ride-hail drivers won in the Features and Travel/Transportation categories. In addition to a months-long investigation that revealed through gripping personal narrative how Uber’s failure to swiftly comply with subpoenas left drivers vulnerable, reporting in our “Working for an Algorithm” series was also honored for quantifying the crisis and creating the only database that tracks carjackings or attempted carjackings of gig workers nationwide. 

Congrats to the entire team that worked on this series: Dara Kerr, Maddy Varner, Ko Bragg, Kris Fischer, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Maria Puertas, Jill Jaroff, Sid Hastings, and Anson Chan, and our publishing partner The Verge.

Our investigation, “Still Loading,” won in the Data Journalism and Media/Entertainment categories. Our story revealed that a quartet of telecom giants disproportionately offered lower-income and least-White neighborhoods slow internet service for the same price as speedy connections they offered in other parts of town. Until The Markup published this investigation, customers receiving the worst deals had no idea about the disparity. 

Since publication, investigative reporters Leon Yin and Aaron Sankin have briefed local-, federal-, and state-level lawmakers and regulators about our findings. They’ve created a guide showing other journalists how to localize the story for their own communities, which many publications did. We also worked with Outlier Media before launch, sharing our data analysis, and Outlier published its own story focused on Detroiters on publication day. Dozens of news organizations also republished The Markup’s story through our partnership with the Associated Press for this project. The investigation has also proved a crucial resource for government officials working to bring more Americans online.  

Congrats to the team that worked on this series: Leon Yin, Aaron Sankin, Evelyn Larrubia, Joel Eastwood, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Paroma Soni, Jeremy Singer-Vine, Maria Puertas, Jill Jaroff, and our publishing partners.

Stories from our “Pixel Hunt” series won honorable mentions in the Investigative and Technology categories. The three stories recognized by the award revealed that Facebook is receiving sensitive medical information about patients from medical websites, dozens of telehealth startups have sent patients’ sensitive health information to multiple big tech companies, and that tax filing websites have been sending users financial information to Facebook. Since publication, mental health startup Cerebral has admitted to disclosing users’ sensitive health data in violation of HIPAA, multiple class action lawsuits have been filed, and our work has been cited by the Department of Health and Human Services, in U.S. Senate hearings, and in letters from eight senators to subjects of our stories.

Congrats to the team that worked on this series: Simon Fondrie-Teitler, Todd Feathers, Surya Mattu, Colin Lecher, Angie Waller, Katie Palmer of STAT, Rina Palta, Micha Gorelick, Gabriel Hongsdusit, Maria Puertas, and Jill Jaroff. Congratulations as well, to our partners at STAT and The Verge, who either coreported or copublished these stories with us.

Congratulations to all of this year’s SABEW Awards honorees.