The Herald has attracted 20 nominations for the 2026 Kennedy Awards for excellence in journalism announced on Friday, the most of any news organisation in Australia with the awards ceremony in August.

The masthead’s coverage of the Bondi massacre, where 15 people were killed during a Hanukkah celebration at Bondi Beach, earned the newsroom a listing as finalist in the outstanding breaking news category, while photographer Edwina Pickles was named in the outstanding news photography category for her harrowing pictures captured minutes after the attack.

Reporters Nigel Gladstone, Lucy Macken, Aisha Dow and the Visual Stories team have been named in the outstanding digital innovation and consumer affairs categories for their Bidding Blind investigation, which lifted the lid on the open secret of mass underquoting through the Australian property market.

They are joined in the consumer affairs category by Kate Aubusson, Aisha Dow, Charlotte Grieve and Emily Kaine, nominated for their Walkley Award-winning Medical Misogyny investigation.

Senior reporter Chris Barrett has been nominated in the outstanding sports category for his scoop revealing NRL referee Ashley Klein’s $400,000 gambling problem, and in the racing category for his Turf Wars coverage.

Amber Schultz is a finalist in the “scoop of the year” category, for her work covering the Iranian women’s soccer team as they travelled from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on their journey home from the Asian Cup as war erupted on their doorstep.

Schultz is joined in the finalist pool by Riley Walter, who has been nominated in the outstanding crime reporting category for a story on Australian law enforcement’s decision to allow a cocaine ship to offload $500 million in drugs off the east coast.

Photographer Sam Mooy has been nominated for his pictures of accused war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith as he was released from Silverwater Correctional Complex. Steven Siewert is a finalist in the outstanding portrait category for his photograph of pioneering Australian pathologist Richard Scolyer.

Education reporter Emily Kowal has been nominated for young journalist of the year. Deputy state topic editor Michael Ruffles is named in the outstanding three headlines category, for “Justice is served”, “Prince to Pariah” and “The lying, the Ferrari wish and the $400,000 in the wardrobe”.

Cartoonists Matt Golding and Cathy Wilcox are named in the outstanding cartoon category, Golding for Playing Trump and Wilcox for Middle East Mess. Rounding out the category is Age cartoonist Megan Herbert, for her work Limited Campaign.

Age crime reporter Sherryn Groch has been named in the investigative reporting category, for her exposé on the rise of the neo-Nazi and far-right movement in Australia.

Good Weekend features Diagnosing Murder, by Michael Bachelard and Ruby Schwartz, and In the Box Seat, by Jane Cadzow, are both nominated in the outstanding feature writing category.

Charlotte Grieve has been nominated in the courts and legal affairs category for Public Interest Precedent: Al Muderis v Nine, for work published in The Age and Herald.

Anabel Dean has been named in the outstanding travel writing category for Hiking the Transcaucasian Trail, published in Traveller.

Herald editor Jordan Baker said: “The finalists reflect The Sydney Morning Herald’s unwavering commitment to outstanding journalism. They recognise excellence from our reporters, photographers, editors and artists across subjects as diverse as crime, rugby league and health.

“I’m particularly proud of the nomination for the whole newsroom, led by deputy editors Nick Ralston and Liam Phelan, for the Herald’s coverage of the Bondi attack. We will never forget that horrendous night, but in the worst of times, our readers rely on the Herald to be at its best. I thank our subscribers for their support, which allows us to keep producing such important journalism.”

The winners of the 2026 Kennedy Awards will be named at the Kennedy Foundation’s presentation dinner, held on August 21 at Royal Randwick.