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The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for its scrutiny of the Trump administration’s sweeping overhaul of federal agencies, while the Associated Press won the Pulitzer for international reporting for work about surveillance, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced Monday. The awards also recognized work across investigative reporting, explanatory reporting, breaking coverage, and visual and audio journalism in a year that judges and editors described as challenging for American journalism.
Pulitzer Prize administrator Marjorie Miller said in a livestream announcement that “This is always a day of celebration in our communities, but perhaps never more so than today as we face tremendous political and economic pressures.” The announcement came as several newsrooms and media outlets have been reshaping their operations, including the Post cutting a third of its staff, CBS News announcing it would shut its nearly century-old radio service, and the AP offering buyouts to more than 120 journalists.
AP executive editor Julie Pace, who described her outlet’s honored work, said the AP project spanned three years and relied on “thousands of pages of documents and numerous interviews.” Pace said the project found that American companies help lay “the foundations of the Chinese government’s system for monitoring and policing its citizens,” and she said, “This was sweeping and deeply impactful reporting, the kind of work that highlights the unique strengths of AP’s global, multiformat newsroom.”
The Associated Press also won the award for international reporting about surveillance at the same time that multiple other major outlets claimed several Pulitzer honors. The New York Times won three of the prizes, while The Washington Post and Reuters each won two, and a range of less widely known outlets—from The Connecticut Mirror to the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out”—were also recognized.
One set of Post winning work, according to the announcement, involved reporter Hannah Natanson, whose home was searched and whose devices were seized, which federal authorities described as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor’s handling of classified documents. The Post said the seizure violated the First Amendment.
The Pulitzer awards also spotlighted work that examined the way Trump and allies sought to expand presidential authority and influence, and work that looked at conflicts of interest. Reuters’ national reporting prize, the judges said, examined how Trump used the federal government and his supporters’ influence to expand presidential authority and target foes, while Reuters editor-in-chief Alessandra Galloni said the win spotlighted “fearless, deeply reported, original work that holds powerful institutions to account.”
In a statement, Joseph Kahn, executive editor of The New York Times, said the Times’ reporters have been threatened over their work and added, “We have not, and will not” bow to the pressure. The announcement also said another Times investigative prize involved examining the Republican president’s boundary-pushing approach to the notion of conflicts of interest.
Beyond national and international investigations, the awards drew attention to local reporting and visual and audio formats. The Minnesota Star Tribune won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news for its coverage of a deadly mass shooting during Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, and judges praised the thoroughness and compassion of the newspaper’s reporting on a scene of carnage in the paper’s hometown.
Kathleen Hennessey, the Star Tribune’s editor and senior vice president, said the recognition highlighted “the power of local journalism,” adding that one Tribune reporter who lives in the neighborhood heard the gunshots and called 911 before running to the scene, and that an editor at the paper has children who attend the school. Hennessey also said, “It feels really gratifying to be recognized, but for this newsroom, this is also just still a really painful event.”
The Pulitzer announcement extended into explanatory work and visual journalism as well. The San Francisco Chronicle received the award for explanatory reporting after a series that, according to the judges, laid out how insurers, aided by algorithmic tools, undervalued and denied rebuilding claims for fire-destroyed homes, and The Times won a breaking news photography award for depicting devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from Israel’s war in the territory.
In other visual categories, The Washington Post won the feature photography prize for a visual essay about a family welcoming a firstborn as the child’s father grappled with terminal cancer, while Bloomberg received the award for illustrated reporting and commentary, including editorial cartoons and similar formats, for a graphic novel about online scams that threaten “digital arrest.” Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait said in a statement that it was “deeply reported public service journalism, published in an inventive format.”
The announcement also cited other awards for local and specialized coverage, including a series from The Connecticut Mirror and ProPublica about how towing companies profited off Connecticut laws at the expense of poor car owners, and recognition for The Chicago Tribune for its coverage of the Trump administration’s intense immigration crackdown in Chicago. It further noted that Pulitzer prizes extended beyond journalism into books, music and theater.
Audio work was also recognized: the Pulitzer audio award went to “Pablo Torre Finds Out” for probing financial arrangements between Los Angeles Clippers superstar Kawhi Leonard and an environmental startup in which the team owner invested. The judges called the project a “pioneering and entertaining form of live podcast journalism,” and it was produced by Meadowlark Media and licensed by The Athletic, the sports site owned by The New York Times Co.
The Pulitzer announcement, the article said, came little more than a week after an armed man rushed a security checkpoint and exchanged gunfire with Secret Service agents outside the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington, where Trump was attending for his first time as president. The man is now charged with trying to assassinate Trump, the announcement said.
The Pulitzer prizes were established in publisher Joseph Pulitzer’s will and were first awarded in 1917, the announcement noted. Winners receive $15,000, and the public service award carries a gold medal, with decisions made by the Pulitzer Board, based at Columbia University in New York.