May 8, 2023 - Economy & Business

Full list: 2023 Pulitzer Prize winners for journalism

Sara Fischer, author of Axios Media Trends

Pulitzer Prize Board chair. Photo: Leigh Vogel/Getty Images

The 2023 Pulitzer Prize winners were announced Monday, with four of the 16 awards for journalism across 15 categories going to local outlets reporting on corruption among local officials.

Why it matters: The prizes reaffirm the importance of local news at a time when local news outlets are struggling to stay afloat.

Details: No one outlet dominated the winner list this year.

The Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times received two awards each.
The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine each took home one prize. (New York Magazine's win gives Vox Media its first Pulitzer.)
Four prizes were awarded to staff and journalists from local outlets, including two prizes for AL.com Birmingham, one for the Miami Herald and one for Mississippi Today.
AL.com Birmingham and Mississippi Today each took home a prize for local reporting.
Gimlet Media, the narrative podcasting company owned by Spotify, won its first Pulitzer Prize.

Of note: Ahead of the award announcement, Poynter Institute president Neil Brown, who serves as co-chair of the Pulitzer Prize Board, acknowledged the grim state of press freedoms globally.

"Journalists pay a substantial price for holding the powerful to account," Brown said. "Too often they are harassed and threatened and even violently attacked and held hostage."
Brown said the Pulitzer Prize board joins the many organizations around the world demanding the immediate release of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich from unlawful detention in Russia.

The awards were announced by Marjorie Miller, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes. The below descriptions of the winners' work are quotes from Miller.

Public Service (1917–present)

Winner: Associated Press for the work of Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko and Lori Hinnant. "Courageous reporting from the besieged city of Mariupol that bore witness to the slaughter of civilians in Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

Breaking News Reporting (1998-present)

Winner: Staff of the Los Angeles Times "for revealing a secretly recorded conversation among city officials that included racist comments."

Investigative Reporting (1985-present)

Winner: Staff of the Wall Street Journal "for accountability reporting on financial conflicts of interest among officials at 50 federal agencies."

Explanatory Reporting (1998-present)

Winner: Caitlin Dickerson of The Atlantic for reporting on the "Trump administration policy that forcefully separated migrant children from their parents, resulting in abuses."

Local Reporting (1948-1952, 2007-present)

Winners: Two prizes were awarded in this category: John Archibald, Ashley Remkus, Ramsey Archibald and Challen Stephens of AL.com Birmingham were awarded the prize "for a series exposing how the police force in the town of Brookside preyed on residents to inflate revenue, coverage that prompted the resignation of the police chief, four new laws and a state audit."
Anna Wolfe of Mississippi Today was awarded the prize "for reporting that revealed how a former Mississippi governor used his office to steer millions of state welfare dollars to benefit his family and friends, including NFL quarterback Brett Favre."

National Reporting (1948-present)

Winner: Caroline Kitchener of the Washington Post for unflinching reporting that captured the complex consequences of life after Roe v. Wade, including the story of a Texas teenager who gave birth to twins after new restrictions denied her an abortion.

International Reporting (1948-present)

Winner: Staff of the New York Times "for their unflinching coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including an eight-month investigation into Ukrainian deaths in the town of Bucha and the Russian unit responsible for the killings."

Feature Writing (1979-present)

Winner: Eli Saslow of the Washington Post "for evocative individual narratives about people struggling with the pandemic, homelessness, addiction and inequality that collectively form a sharply observed portrait of contemporary America."

Commentary (1973-present)

Winner: Kyle Whitmire of AL.com, Birmingham "for measured and persuasive columns that document how Alabama's Confederate heritage still colors the present with racism and exclusion, told through tours of its first capital, its mansions and monuments — and through the history that has been omitted."

Criticism (1973-present)

Winner: Andrea Long Chu of New York Magazine "for book reviews that scrutinize authors as well as their works, using multiple cultural lenses to explore some of society's most fraught topics."

Editorial Writing (1917-present)

Winner: Amy Driscoll with Nancy Ancrum, Luisa Yanez, Isadora Rangel and Lauren Costantino of the Miami Herald "for a series of editorials on the failure of Florida public officials to deliver on many taxpayer-funded amenities and services promised to residents over decades."

Illustrated Reporting and Commentary

Winner: Mona Chalabi, contributor to the New York Times, "for striking illustrations that combine statistical reporting with keen analysis to help readers understand the immense wealth and economic power of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos."

Breaking News Photography (2000-present)

Winner: The photography staff of the Associated Press "for unique and urgent images from the first weeks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, including the devastation of Mariupol after other news organizations left, victims of the targeting of civilian infrastructure and the resilience of the Ukrainian people who were able to flee."

Feature Photography (1968-present)

Winner: Christina House of the Los Angeles Times "for an intimate look into the life of a pregnant 22-year-old woman living on the street in a tent — images that show her emotional vulnerability as she tries and ultimately loses the struggle to raise her child."

Audio Reporting (2020-present)

Winner: The staff of Gimlet Media, notably Connie Walker, "whose investigation into her father's troubled past revealed a larger story of abuse of hundreds of Indigenous children."

Go deeper: Full list of winners in journalism and descriptions of their awards, via The Pulitzer Board:

Go deeper:

Editor's note:

This story has been updated to reflect that New York Magazine's win gives Vox Media its first Pulitzer.
This story has been corrected to fix multiple errors in phrasing, grammar and punctuation that were introduced while transcribing the announcement video.