Pulitzer Prize winners reflect the current state of the US newspaper industry

Posted by Helena Deards on April 21, 2009 at 11:22 AM

The 2009 Pulitzer Prize winners have been announced - and, in the first year that online entrants have been accepted, an online winner has been selected in the national reporting category. The St Petersburg Times has been recognised for its PolitiFact project, the majority of which was published on PolitiFact.com. The recognition of the project displays the growing importance of online reporting in the modern news landscape.

It was the New York Times that emerged triumphant, however, picking up no fewer than five prizes across a range of categories - including international and breaking news reporting. There have only been two occasions where a publication has won more than five prizes, the NYT in 2002 and the Washington Post last year. Interestingly, neither the NYT nor any other publication, won any recognition for their coverage of the financial crisis.

Executive editor of the Times Bill Keller said that whilst some newspapers have decided that they can no longer afford expensive overseas and investigative reporting, "this paper has decided it can't afford not to do those things." As Keller points out, the Times' success may be in part due to its decision to continue with the more expensive aspects of its reporting.

However, there were also Pulitzers awarded to newspapers that are reflective of the current struggles of the American newspaper industry; the Detroit Free Press and the Las Vegas Sun. The Free Press ended home delivery four days per week, whilst the Sun has been an insert inside the Las Vegas Review Journal since 2005.

Indirectly, this year's Pulitzer Prizes have perfectly highlighted the state of the American newspaper industry. Online news is now big business; not only do many people use the Web to read the news, there are more and more online-only news outlets springing up where local newspapers have closed. The absence of any prizes for reporting on the economic crisis is reflective of the criticism that the media has received for its role in the build-up - both in the US and the UK.

The New York Times' success is in part due to their continued financing of expensive reporting projects, which many smaller newspapers have had to forego in the current economic climate - although the recognition of the Sun and the Free Press shows that there is still quality reporting emerging from newspapers which have been forced to make cutbacks.

Source: New York Times, Guardian