The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes and the New Yorker three on Monday for journalism in 2024 that touched on topics like the fentanyl crisis, the U.S. military and last summer's assassination attempt on President Donald Trump, reports UNB via AP.
The Pulitzers' prestigious public service medal went to ProPublica for the second straight year. Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo and Stacy Kranitz were honoured for reporting on pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgent care in states with strict abortion laws.
The Washington Post won for "urgent and illuminating" breaking news coverage of the Trump assassination attempt. The Pulitzers honoured Ann Telnaes, who quit the Post in January after the news outlet refused to run her editorial cartoon lampooning tech chiefs — including Post owner Jeff Bezos — cosying up to Trump. The Pulitzers praised her "fearlessness."
The Pulitzers honoured the best in journalism from 2024 in 15 categories, along with eight arts categories including books, music and theatre. The public service winner receives a gold medal. All other winners receive $15,000.
The New York Times showed its breadth with awards honouring reporting from Afghanistan, Sudan, Baltimore and Butler, Pennsylvania. Doug Mills won in breaking news photography for his pictures of the Trump assassination attempt, including one that captured a bullet in the air near the GOP candidate.
The Times' Azam Ahmed and Christina Goldbaum, and contributing writer Matthieu Aikins won an explanatory reporting prize for examining U.S. policy failures in Afghanistan. Declan Walsh and the Times' staff won for an investigation into the Sudan conflict.
A big milestone for a new local news outlet
The Times was also part of a collaboration with The Baltimore Banner, whose reporters Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme and Jessica Gallagher won in local reporting for stories on that city's fentanyl crisis and its disproportionate effect on Black men. The Banner was created three years ago, with several staffers who had left the Baltimore Sun.
"This is a huge milestone for us," Editor in Chief Kimi Yoshino said in an interview. "I told the newsroom today that never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be here at this moment. It is a testament to the power of local news, the need for local news and what journalists can do when they focus on important stories in our community."
The Banner created a statistical model that it shared with journalists in cities like Boston, Chicago and San Francisco for stories there, she said.
Reuters won for its own investigative series on fentanyl, showing how lax regulation both inside and outside the United States makes the drug inexpensive and widely available. Inewsource.org in San Diego was a finalist in the illustrated reporting and commentary category for its stories on fentanyl.
The New Yorker's Mosab Abu Toha won for his commentaries on Gaza. The magazine also won for its "In the Dark" podcast about the killing of Iraqi civilians by the U.S. military and in feature photography for Moises Saman's pictures of the Sednaya prison in Syria.
The Wall Street Journal won a Pulitzer for its reporting on Elon Musk, "including his turn to conservative politics, his use of legal and illegal drugs and his private conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin," the Pulitzer board said. The Journal was also a finalist for its "cool-headed" reporting on the plight of Evan Gershkovich, who was imprisoned in Russia.
A special citation for a career covering civil rights
The Pulitzers also gave a special citation to the late Chuck Stone for his work covering the civil rights movement. The pioneering journalist was the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News and founded the National Association of Black Journalists.
Mark Warren of Esquire won the feature writing prize for his portrait of a Baptist pastor and small-town mayor who died by suicide after his secret online life was exposed by a right-wing news site.
Alexandra Lange, a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab won an award in criticism for "graceful and genre-expanding" writing about public spaces for families.
The Houston Chronicle Raj Mankad, Sharon Steinmann, Lisa Falkenberg and Leah Binkovitz won the Pulitzer in editorial writing for their series on dangerous train crossings.
The Associated Press was a finalist in breaking news reporting for its own coverage of the Trump assassination attempt, and in investigative reporting for its partnership with PBS FRONTLINE and the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland and at Arizona State University for stories documenting more than 1,000 deaths at the hands of police using methods of subduing people that were supposed to be non-lethal.
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