The Pagefield Awards 2026 recognise those shaping political discourse, influencing public understanding and driving meaningful change across three broad areas: politics, media and social media content.
Influence in journalism is not always built slowly. Sometimes it comes from years of authority and accumulated trust. Sometimes it comes from a single story that changes the terms of debate. And sometimes it comes from a journalist finding exactly the right moment, platform and voice and suddenly becoming impossible to ignore.
The Pagefield Award for the Journalist Whose Influence Grew and Grew this Year recognises those whose reputations, reach and impact have risen significantly over the past year. These are journalists who have not simply published strong work but have expanded their place in the conversation through investigations, analysis, editorial leadership, or distinctive ways of helping audiences understand what is really happening.
This year’s shortlist reflects three very different forms of growing influence: a reporter whose rise has been powered by major front-page investigations; an editor and writer helping to reshape one of Britain’s most interesting political magazines; and a data journalist whose charts and analysis travel far beyond the usual boundaries of economic reporting.
Here are this year’s nominees:
Daisy Graham-Brown, The Mail on Sunday
Daisy Graham-Brown’s rise has been rapid, striking and impossible to miss.
Having moved from a more junior position at the Daily Mail to become an investigations reporter at The Mail on Sunday, she has quickly established herself as one of the paper’s most compelling new reporting talents. Since taking on the role, her work has moved onto front pages and into the heart of national conversation.
Her reporting has included major stories on Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein, including the Mail on Sunday front-page investigation into Epstein’s “very cute” Romanian guest for Andrew at Buckingham Palace. It’s this kind of story that captures public attention while also demanding persistence, detail and confidence from the reporter behind it.
What makes her rise so impressive is not only the prominence of the stories, but the speed with which she has become associated with serious, agenda-setting investigations. In a fiercely competitive newsroom and an even more competitive media landscape, Graham-Brown has shown the instinct, tenacity and judgement that mark out a journalist on a genuinely upward trajectory.
Will Lloyd, New Statesman
Will Lloyd’s growing influence has come through a different route: voice, judgement and editorial instinct.
Since returning to the New Statesman, he has become a key part of the magazine’s renewed energy and sharper editorial identity. The publication has become punchier, more surprising and more talked about; a place where political, cultural and ideological arguments are given room to breathe, but also made sharper and more readable.
Lloyd’s own writing and editorial role sit at the heart of that repositioning. He brings a distinctive perspective: a writer of the left whose work is also read seriously by people on the right. That is rarer than it should be in today’s media environment, where too much commentary is written only for those already inclined to agree.
His influence lies in his ability to cross those boundaries. He is part of a New Statesman that feels newly relevant: a publication capable of provoking, intriguing and setting the terms for debate well beyond its traditional audience.
John Burn-Murdoch, Financial Times
John Burn-Murdoch has become one of the clearest examples of how influence in journalism can grow through evidence, explanation and visual storytelling.
As a columnist and Chief Data Reporter at the Financial Times, Burn-Murdoch has built a distinctive place in the public conversation by combining original data analysis with exceptional clarity. His work does not simply describe what is happening; it shows it.
That matters in a media environment crowded with opinion, assertion and instant reaction. Whether writing about AI, inequality, growth, demographics, health, work or social change, Burn-Murdoch brings authority and accessibility to subjects that can otherwise feel abstract or contested. His charts are widely shared because they do what the best journalism should do: make complex realities visible.
His growing influence comes from a rare combination of rigour and reach. Policymakers, business leaders, commentators and engaged readers pay attention to his work not because it is loud, but because it is useful. At a time when everyone is trying to explain the future, Burn-Murdoch stands out as someone able to ground the debate in what the data actually shows.
The winner will be announced as part of the Pagefield Awards 2026 on 15th June.
