DIHK Chief Executive Officer Helena Melnikov emphasised in her speech the great importance of quality business journalism for the work of companies in this country.

Representing outstanding business reporting: the winners of the IHK Prize for Business Journalism 'Ernst Schneider' 2026.

Klaus Scherer from NDR was honoured for the ARD story 'Economy in the Stress Test: A Year with Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises'.

Sandra Pfister from Deutschlandfunk (right) was honoured for her podcast "Crashkurs – Wirtschaft trifft Geschichte".

Karina Szwede, Chief Executive Officer of the IHK for Rheinhessen, DIHK Chief Executive Officer Helena Melnikov, and Marcus Walden, President of the IHK for Rheinhessen.

Unfortunately, special award winner Nicolas Killian from 'Zeit' was unable to attend in person.

Together with his colleague Felix Holtermann (not pictured), Thomas Jahn from 'Handelsblatt' impressed in the category "Klartext überregional".

IHK President Marcus Walden called in his speech for journalism to look beyond the numbers and focus on the people.

Wolfgang Würth described the rise and fall of the Ziegler Group in 'Der neue Tag'. This earned him victory in the category "Klartext regional".

Keynote speaker was Philipp Schild, Managing Director of the content network funk, run by ARD and ZDF.

The award gala also offered plenty of opportunities for networking.

Mary Abdelaziz-Ditzow (second from left) accepted her special award together with members of the 'Finanzfluss' team.

Delighted with the successful event (from left): DIHK Chief Executive Officer Helena Melnikov, Marcus Walden, President of the IHK for Rheinhessen, and Karina Szwede, Chief Executive Officer of the IHK for Rheinhessen.