I just watched with anticipation the announcement of the 2024 Pulitzer Prizes. It began with Pulitzer administrator Marjorie Miller sharing the soul-numbing news of 130 newspapers going out of business last year, with the loss of 3,000 journalism jobs.
There was truly great journalism honored this year in spite of the widespread loss of news resources, especially from regional newspapers. When I arrived at the St. Petersburg Times as a writing coach in 1977, I learned that the Times had won a single Pulitzer in its history. As its resources grew over the decades, so did the prizes, now 14 in all for magnificent work.
I remember the spring day in 1998 when I sped over from the Poynter Institute, which owns the Times, to the newsroom to watch my best buddy Tom French win the prize for feature writing. Not quite the winning locker room at the end of the World Series — no goggles and Champagne showers — but thrilling in its own way.
I have been a Pulitzer juror on five occasions, though not lately, so I have learned a bit about the process, the politics, and practices of the Pulitzer Prizes. (I realize there is enough alliteration in that line to make Peter Piper jealous.)
The prizes given out this year felt wonderful. I was rooting for some of the journalists I have had the honor to work with. I cheered when Jonathan Eig won for his biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And I laughed when Clay Bennett, a previous winner for editorial cartoons, was a finalist this year. (Back in the day, Clay played third base and I played shortstop on the St. Pete Times softball team. He smoked cigarettes during play. And he appeared to cry when a line drive knocked over his can of beer.)
But as more and more winners and finalists were announced, I was overcome with a feeling of unease, of atrophy, of a once strong thing falling apart. On a hunch, I went back to 1998 to view the list of winners and finalists. Winners included regional newspapers in Grand Forks, Baltimore, St. Pete, Dayton, Riverdale, and Pittsburgh — eight in all. Add 12 finalists and that’s a total of 20 honors going to regional newspapers.
As the 2024 prizes were announced, I took notes of categories and news organizations. It must be said, of course, that one difference between 1998 and 2024 is that the Pulitzers greatly expanded who could win a prize. Now ink-stained wretches compete against fancy magazines, multimedia websites, and other innovators.
MORE FROM POYNTER: Among the Pulitzer Prize winners, where are the metros?
OK, I have buried the lead (or lede), not an inappropriate metaphor for what I am about to reveal. If my count is correct, there were no Pulitzer winners — make that zero — among the regional newspapers. Among the finalists, I note four from the regions: Pittsburgh, Chattanooga, Miami and Nashville. (I apologize for any miscount or for a newspaper I have left out).
I majored in English and not accounting. But here is my bottom line:
In a quarter century, the number of regional newspaper honorees went from 20 to four.
You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, which is not to say that those numbers will not increase significantly in future years.
I am rooting for the Tampa Bay Times to win five more Pulitzers before the end of the decade! Man, I love those parties.
