Hundreds of NewsGuild-CWA members were recognized from more than a dozen Guild-represented newsrooms on Monday by The Pulitzer Prizes for their incredible journalism.
“Congratulations to every journalist and media worker recognized by The Pulitzer Prizes for the contributions to our craft,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “So many union journalists were recognized this year and being in a union protects you so you can do your job to seek truth and report it. Hardworking journalists and other workers who support them — not bots and AI — are the ones who find and report the news stories we need to understand our world.”
Pulitzer Prize Winners
The top honor for Public Service journalism was awarded to Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo at ProPublica, which unionized with The NewsGuild of New York in August 2023, for their work covering pregnant women who died after doctors delayed urgently needed care for fear of violating vague “life of the mother” exceptions in states with strict abortion laws. ProPublica journalists are still fighting for a first contract at the nonprofit news outlet.
The Breaking News Reporting award went to the staff of The Washington Post, part of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, for their coverage of the July 13 assassination attempt of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The Investigative Reporting award went to the staff of Reuters, members of the NewsGuild of New York, for their in-depth coverage of lax regulation in the U.S. and abroad that makes fentanyl.
The National Reporting award recognized the staff of The Wall Street Journal, who are members of Guild local IAPE 1096, for their work chronicling political and personal shifts of Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.
Judges awarded the International Reporting award to the staff of The New York Times for their revelatory investigation of the conflict in Sudan. U.S.-based workers at The New York Times are members of the NewsGuild of New York.
The Breaking News Photography award was given to Doug Mills of The New York Times, who’s a member of the NewsGuild of New York, for his photos of the attempted assassination of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. One of the photos captured the bullet whizzing past Trump’s ear as he spoke.
Finalists
Many Guild members were finalists for the awards, including the staff at the Center for Public Integrity, who lost their jobs after the organization shut down.
The Public Service finalists included journalists from The Boston Globe and The New York Times. Globe journalists, who are members of The Boston Newspaper Guild, were recognized for their sweeping coverage of the financial mismanagement of a major hospital chain. Dave Philipps, a member of the NewsGuild of New York, was recognized for his reporting that forced Congress and the Pentagon to acknowledge the devastating brain injuries U.S. troops suffered from repeated blasts during weapons training.
Breaking News Reporting finalists included the staff of Associated Press for their coverage of the assassination attempt on then-presidential candidate Donal Trump and gaps in security measures by the Secret Service and local law enforcement. AP workers are members of the News Media Guild. The staffs of both The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer were also finalists for their collaboration reporting on Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 200 people and damaged 70,000 homes. Charlotte Observer journalists are members of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild.
Journalists at both The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press were finalists for the Investigative Reporting award. Christopher Weaver, Anna Wilde Mathews, Mark Maremont, Tom McGinty and Andrew Mollica at the Journal were recognized for their series revealing how insurance companies game the Medicare Advantage system to collect billions of dollars from nonexistent ailments while shunting expensive cases on the public. AP journalists working with FRONTLINE were recognized for a three-year investigation documenting more than 1,000 deaths around the U.S. in which police officers subdued victims with methods intended to be non-lethal.
Explanatory Reporting finalists included Alexia Campbell, April Simpson and Pratheek Rebala of the Center for Public Integrity, which recently shut down. They worked with journalists at Mother Jones to reveal how land titles granted to formerly enslaved Black people were unjustly revoked in the wake of the Civil War. Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Max Blau and Maya Miller of ProPublica were also recognized for their examination of how insurance companies quietly deny mental health services to those in need.
Mike Reicher, Lynda Mapes and Fiona Martin of The Seattle Times were finalists for Local Reporting for their investigative series revealing how the Washington state government spent $1 million a day on construction that failed to safeguard either the tribal treaty rights or the salmon the state was meant to protect. Seattle Times workers are part of the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.
The National Reporting finalists included Jennifer Gollan and Susie Neilson of the San Francisco Chronicle for their series that exposed a soaring death toll tied to police pursuits and the near-total immunity that shields officers who initiate deadly chases. San Francisco Chronicle workers are part of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. The staff of the Washington Post was also recognized as a finalist for their coverage of the human and environmental toll left by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina.
The staff of both The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post were recognized as finalists for their International Reporting. The Journal, whose U.S.-based workers are members of IAPE 1096, were recognized for their reporting of the imprisonment of their colleague Evan Gershkovich, who was apprehended by the Russian government. The Post staff was recognized for their accountability journalism documenting the Israeli atrocities in the Gaza strip and the investigation into the killings fo Palestinian journalists.
The finalists for Commentary are both represented by the Guild. Gustavo Arellano of the Los Angeles Times is a member of the Media Guild of the West and was recognized for his vivid columns that shattered stereotypes and probed complex shifts in politics in a year when Latinos were pivotal voters. Jerry Brewer of The Washington Post was recognized as a finalist for his use of sports to examine critical social divisions in America through difficult conversations about race, gender and media bias.
Sara Holdren of New York Magazine was a finalist for theater Criticism that combined a reporter’s eye and a historian’s memory to inform readers about current stage productions. Workers at New York Magazine are members of the NewsGuild of New York.
The finalists for Editorial Writing included writers at both The Boston Globe and The New York Times. The Globe was recognized for their deeply reported editorials on how Boston can humanely and effectively close underutilized schools in ways that improve student learning. New York Times writers were recognized for their powerful and graphic series on the potential horrors of nuclear war.
Breaking News Photography finalists included photojournalists and contributors at The New York Times for their work capturing the horrors of the war in Ukraine. Photographers at Agence France-Presse, who’s U.S.-based journalists are members of the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, were recognized for their powerful images shot entirely by a team of Palestinian journalists that documented the enduring humanity of the people of Gaza amid widespread destruction and loss.
The Feature Photography finalists included the staff of the Associated Press for their gripping imagery from Gaza that stepped back from the front lines to chronicle daily life in the war zone.