For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper, magazine or news site through the use of its journalistic resources, including the use of stories, editorials, cartoons, photographs, graphics, videos, databases, multimedia or interactive presentations or other visual material, a gold medal.
Awarded to ProPublica for the work of Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, Brett Murphy, Alex Mierjeski and Kirsten Berg, groundbreaking and ambitious reporting that pierced the thick wall of secrecy surrounding the Supreme Court to reveal how a small group of politically influential billionaires wooed justices with lavish gifts and travel, pushing the Court to adopt its first code of conduct.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: KFF Health News and Cox Media Group for uncovering millions of cases in which the Social Security Administration overpaid beneficiaries, then demanded immediate repayment — imposing debts on elderly and disabled people who had already spent the funds; and The Washington Post for its sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings in America.
For a distinguished example of local, state or national reporting of breaking news that, as quickly as possible, captures events accurately as they occur, and, as time passes, illuminates, provides context and expands upon the initial coverage. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to the Staff of Lookout Santa Cruz, California, for its detailed and nimble community-focused coverage, over a holiday weekend, of catastrophic flooding and mudslides that displaced thousands of residents and destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Staff of the Honolulu Civil Beat for its distinctive, sweeping and urgent coverage of the Maui wildfires that killed more than 100 people and left a historic town in ruins, reporting that held officials to account and chronicled the aftermath and efforts to rebuild (Moved by the jury from the Local Reporting category.); and Staff of the Los Angeles Times for urgent and thoughtful coverage of a Lunar New Year overnight shooting that left 11 senior citizens dead, demonstrating clear knowledge of and commitment to the local Asian communities.
For a distinguished example of investigative reporting, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Hannah Dreier of The New York Times for a deeply reported series of stories revealing the stunning reach of migrant child labor across the United States — and the corporate and governmental failures that perpetuate it.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Staff of Bloomberg for a deep and rigorous investigation of how the US government aided the global spread of gun violence, prompting the Biden administration to halt most gun exports for 90 days while it reviewed the federal government's marketing relationship with gun manufacturers; and Casey Ross and Bob Herman of STAT for exposing how United Health Group, the nation's largest health insurer, used an unregulated algorithm to override clinicians' judgments and deny care, highlighting the dangers of AI use in medicine.
For a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Sarah Stillman of The New Yorker for a searing indictment of our legal system’s reliance on the felony murder charge and its disparate consequences, often devastating for communities of color.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Staff of Bloomberg for rigorous, far-reaching reporting that holds corporate water profiteers to account and exposes how they willfully exacerbate the effects of climate change at the expense of less powerful communities; and Staffs of The Texas Tribune, ProPublica, and FRONTLINE for advancing understanding of law enforcement’s catastrophic response to the mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school and also for documenting the political and policy shortcomings that have led to similar deadly police failures across the country.
For a distinguished example of coverage of significant issues of local or statewide concern,
demonstrating originality and community connection, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Sarah Conway of City Bureau and Trina Reynolds-Tyler of the Invisible Institute for their investigative series on missing Black girls and women in Chicago that revealed how systemic racism and police department neglect contributed to the crisis.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Jerry Mitchell, Ilyssa Daly, Brian Howey and Nate Rosenfield of Mississippi Today and The New York Times for their detailed examination of corruption and abuse, including the torturing of suspects, by Mississippi sheriffs and their officers over two decades; and Staff of The Villages Daily Sun for its comprehensive investigation and moment-by-moment account of Florida officials’ inaction before, during and after Hurricane Ian, the deadliest storm to strike the state since 1935.
For a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Two Prizes of $15,000 each:
Awarded to the Staff of Reuters for an eye-opening series of accountability stories focused on Elon Musk’s automobile and aerospace businesses, stories that displayed remarkable breadth and depth and provoked official probes of his companies’ practices in Europe and the United States.
and
Awarded to the staff of The Washington Post for its sobering examination of the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, which forced readers to reckon with the horrors wrought by the weapon often used for mass shootings in America. (Moved by the Board from the Public Service category, where it also was entered and nominated.)
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Bianca Vázquez Toness and Sharon Lurye of the Associated Press for a deeply reported series on the corrosive effect of the pandemic on public education, highlighting the staggering number of students missing from classrooms across America; and Dave Philipps of The New York Times for groundbreaking reporting that uncovered a pattern of traumatic brain injuries among U.S. troops from blast exposures caused by the weapons they were firing.
For a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to the Staff of The New York Times for its wide-ranging and revelatory coverage of Hamas’ lethal attack in southern Israel on October 7, Israel’s intelligence failures and the Israeli military’s sweeping, deadly response in Gaza.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Julie Turkewitz and Federico Rios of The New York Times for their immersive and ambitious coverage of “migration purgatory” in the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama; and Staff of The Washington Post for a sweeping on-the-ground investigation in India that exposed the methodical undermining of the world’s largest democracy by Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist allies, who have deployed social media to foment hate and pressure American tech giants to bend to government power.
For distinguished feature writing giving prime consideration to quality of writing, originality and concision, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Katie Engelhart, contributing writer, The New York Times, for her fair-minded portrait of a family’s legal and emotional struggles during a matriarch’s progressive dementia that sensitively probes the mystery of a person’s essential self.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Keri Blakinger of The Marshall Project, co-published with The New York Times Magazine, for her insightful, humane portrait, reported with great difficulty, of men on Death Row in Texas who play clandestine games of “Dungeons & Dragons,” countering their extreme isolation with elaborate fantasy; and Jennifer Senior of The Atlantic for her exquisitely rendered account of her disabled aunt, who was institutionalized as a small child, and the lasting effects on her family, told in the context of present-day care and intervention that make different outcomes possible.
For distinguished commentary, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Vladimir Kara-Murza, contributor, The Washington Post, for passionate columns written at great personal risk from his prison cell, warning of the consequences of dissent in Vladimir Putin's Russia and insisting on a democratic future for his country.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Brian Lyman of the Alabama Reflector for incisive columns that challenge a range of state policies flouting democratic norms and targeting vulnerable populations, written with the commanding authority of a veteran political observer; and Jay Caspian Kang of The New Yorker for provocative columns that urge us to reexamine popular narratives on such critical topics as affirmative action, racial politics and the portrayal of gun violence.
For distinguished criticism, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times for richly evocative and genre-spanning film criticism that reflects on the contemporary moviegoing experience.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Zadie Smith, contributor, The New York Review of Books for a review of the film “Tár” that addressed with wit and ease such consequential themes as mortality and the clash of generations; and Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker for theater reviews that reflect a formidable knowledge of the stage and the mechanics of performance along with canny observations on the human condition.
For distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction, using any available journalistic tool. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to David E. Hoffman of The Washington Post for a compelling and well-researched series on new technologies and the tactics authoritarian regimes use to repress dissent in the digital age, and how they can be fought.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Isadora Rangel of the Miami Herald for a scathing series that roots the city’s multiple political scandals in a troubled local democracy and champions electoral reforms; and Brandon McGinley and Rebecca Spiess of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for ambitious, investigative editorials that examine a collapse in services for the homeless in Pittsburgh, and the city’s failure to account for millions of dollars meant to offer relief.
For a distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work (still, animated, or both) characterized by political insight, editorial effectiveness, or public service value. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to Medar de la Cruz, contributor, The New Yorker for his visually-driven story set inside Rikers Island jail using bold black-and-white images that humanize the prisoners and staff through their hunger for books.
Nominated as finalists in this category were: Clay Bennett of the Chattanooga Times Free Press for a portfolio of deceptively gentle, mostly wordless cartoons full of juxtapositions that ably communicate complex, sophisticated messages; Angie Wang, contributor, The New Yorker for a vivid illustrated journey with her toddler that explains how human language learning can never be supplanted by AI.; and Claire Healy, Nicole Dungca and Ren Galeno, contributor, of The Washington Post for masterful and sensitive use of the comic form to reveal the story of a great injustice to a group of Filipinos exhibited at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis, where some of them died.
For a distinguished example of breaking news photography, which may be a single photograph or series of photographs of an event that occurs with no advance notice and requires spontaneous coverage in the moment. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to the Photography Staff of Reuters for raw and urgent photographs documenting the October 7th deadly attack in Israel by Hamas and the first weeks of Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Adem Altan of Agence France Presse for a heartbreaking image of a man clutching the hand of his deceased daughter a day after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed more than 50,000 people in Turkey and Syria; and Nicole S. Hester of The Tennessean for a distressing image of a young girl looking out of a school bus in anguish as she is evacuated from the scene of a deadly shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville.
For a distinguished example of feature photography, which may be a single photograph or series of photographs of general news that may be taken over time and that illuminate a subject in great depth. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to the Photography Staff of The Associated Press for poignant photographs chronicling unprecedented masses of migrants and their arduous journey north from Colombia to the border of the United States.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Nanna Heitmann, contributor, The New York Times for illuminating photographs portraying a generation living under President Vladimir Putin’s resurgent nationalism while Russia is at war in Ukraine; and Hannah Reyes Morales, contributor, The New York Times for a creative series of photographs documenting a “youthquake” occurring in Africa where, by 2050, the continent will account for one-quarter of the world’s population and one-third of its young people.
For a distinguished example of audio journalism that serves the public interest, characterized by revelatory reporting and illuminating storytelling. Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).
Awarded to the Staffs of the Invisible Institute, Chicago, and USG Audio, California, for a powerful series that revisits a Chicago hate crime from the 1990s, a fluid amalgam of memoir, community history and journalism.
Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Dan Slepian and Preeti Varathan, contributor, of NBC News for their relentless 20-year investigation that resulted in a wrongfully-convicted man finally receiving clemency; and Lauren Chooljian, Alison Macadam, Jason Moon, Daniel Barrick and Katie Colaneri of New Hampshire Public Radio for their gripping and extensively reported investigation of corruption and sexual abuse within the lucrative recovery industry that sought accountability despite legal pressure.
The Pulitzer Board awarded a special citation for the late writer and critic Greg Tate, whose language — cribbed from literature, academia, popular culture and hip-hop — was as influential as the content of his ideas. His aesthetic, innovations and intellectual originality, particularly in his pioneering hip-hop criticism, continue to influence subsequent generations, especially writers and critics of color.
In recent years the Pulitzer Board has issued citations honoring journalists covering wars in Ukraine and Afghanistan. "This year, the Board recognizes the courageous work of journalists and media workers covering the war in Gaza. Under horrific conditions, an extraordinary number of journalists have died in the effort to tell the stories of Palestinians and others in Gaza. This war has also claimed the lives of poets and writers among the casualties. As the Pulitzer Prizes honor categories of journalism, arts and letters, we mark the loss of invaluable records of the human experience."
