Atlantic City, N.J. — The National Headliner Awards, one of the nation’s oldest and most venerable journalism competitions, has issued a special citation to Julie K. Brown of The Miami Herald for her 2018 investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case, saying it resides in the rarified league of journalistic enterprise that revealed the Pentagon Papers and Watergate.
The Headliners, which honored Brown in its 2019 contest cycle with Best in Show and First Place for investigative reporting, made the rare commendation in recognition of her yearslong “tectonic impact on the issues of sexual justice, entitlement and abuse of power.”
Skilled reporting and shoe-leather journalism are core values to the Headliners contest, which began in 1935. Brown’s series, “Perversion of Justice,” met the highest standards of the concepts, and it is included as an exemplar in the annual orientation of new Headliner judges.
“We rarely see Brown’s work acknowledged in Epstein coverage,” said a statement from the National Headliner Awards Board of Directors. “We think it is worth reminding the industry of the potential and power of a single determined journalist in an era when our profession is under attack on many levels.”
Approved unanimously by the Headliner 2026 jury deliberating in Atlantic City, N.J., in February, the citation says:
“The National Headliner Awards again recognizes the investigative reporting of Julie K. Brown of The Miami Herald that has — since it was voted our Best In Show in 2019 — had a tectonic impact on the issues of sexual justice, entitlement and abuse of power. The explosive effects of her work have steadily intensified for nearly a decade and have become international in scope. From a historical perspective, it must be considered in the league of investigative reporting that revealed the Pentagon Papers, Iran Contra and Watergate. Ms. Brown has changed the world through her journalistic skill and dogged professionalism.”
Her Epstein series was the second Best-of-Show award Brown has received from the National Headliners. She earlier won for a Miami Herald investigative series on Florida’s troubled prison system.
“I’m grateful for National Headliners’ support of my work over the years,” Brown said in accepting the citation. “It encourages other journalists who are writing about the vulnerable, the people who don’t have a voice.”
The National Headliner Awards is under the aegis of the Press Club of Atlantic City, which is among the nation’s oldest press clubs, formed in 1888. The awards recently announced its 92nd award winners for the best journalism published in 2025.