The Associated Press won the top honor as the 100th annual Pulitzer Prizes were handed out on Monday, and the Los Angeles Times won for breaking news coverage of the San Bernardino massacre.
The AP won the gold medal in public service for its investigation series entitled “Seafood from Slaves” into the profound labor abuses in the Southeast Asian fishing industry. It is the 52nd Pulitzer won by the AP.
The Washington Post was recognized for its enterprise work on police shootings in the United States. The Post won the Pulitzer for “Fatal Force,” a project that detailed the number of deadly police shootings throughout the country last year.
That national reporting award had been telegraphed on Monday morning, after Politico Playbook reported that Washington Post national reporter Wesley Lowery “jubilantly told friends at a party this weekend that he and a Post team” had been tipped off to the win.
The prizes, named for the pioneering newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, were established by in 1917.
There are 14 journalism categories, primarily recognizing the work of print newspapers, but also recognizing magazines and digital news organizations. There are five book categories, one drama category and one music composition.
Reporters and editors across the country often gather in their newsrooms to hear the Pulitzer winners as they are announced. Some, like the Los Angeles Times on Monday, are stocked with champagne for the occasion.
Los Angeles Times national reporter Matt Pearce tweeted a photo of his co-workers clinking glasses after the newspaper’s staff won the Pulitzer for breaking news reporting. The Times staff was recognized for their coverage of the San Bernardino massacre.
ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller and The Marshall Project’s Ken Armstrong took home the Pulitzer for explanatory reporting for a riveting expose on a serial rapist and one of his victims.
The 11,000-word piece, a rare instance of collaboration between two rival outlets, came about after Miller and Armstrong learned they were chasing the same story.
ProPublica and The Marshall Project were this year’s only digital winners.
The InsideClimate News web site, a Pulitzer winner in 2013, was a finalist again this year, for the Public Service prize.
Otherwise, the winners and finalists were all from print-based organizations.
The New Yorker magazine won a Pulitzer for the first time — and it won two.
The feature writing winner, Kathryn Schulz, tweeted her reaction: “Honored and staggered, in the other order. Thank you, Pulitzer committee.”
The prize committee called Schulz’s story about the Cascadia fault line “a masterwork of environmental reporting and writing.”
The magazine’s other honoree, television critic Emily Nussbaum, won the prize for criticism.
David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, told staffers in an email on Monday that the Pulitzer results were “simply astounding” and a “source of immense pride.”
“This is a day of celebration at The New Yorker, first and foremost for these writers, who are so deserving,” he said in the email.
As expected, Lin-Manuel Miranda won in the drama category for his smash hit musical “Hamilton.”
Miranda showed plenty of gratitude on Twitter.