Emily is an award-winning investigative journalist known for her groundbreaking reporting on corporate accountability, media, privacy, and workplace misconduct. Since joining The New York Times in 2014, she has produced impactful investigations that have shaped public discourse and driven institutional change.
Steel was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team that exposed sexual harassment and misconduct across multiple industries, earning the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. Her reporting revealed a series of settlements totaling $45 million related to sexual harassment allegations against Bill O’Reilly, helping spark a broader global reckoning around workplace misconduct and accountability.
Before joining The New York Times, Steel was a media and marketing correspondent at Financial Times and previously worked at The Wall Street Journal. There, she contributed to the acclaimed What They Know and End of Privacy series, which examined the widespread tracking of consumers online. The work was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting and earned both a Gerald Loeb Award and a Sigma Delta Chi Public Service Award.
Her journalism has been recognized with numerous honors, including the Livingston Award, PEN Center USA’s Freedom to Write Award, and the Matrix Incite Award from New York Women in Communications.
