CJR is celebrating the Pulitzer centennial in print and at CJR.org.
The Spring 2016 issue of Columbia Journalism Review hits newsstands today. Titled "A Century of Pulitzers: How a single prize and the journalism it honors can change the course of history," the magazine features work by multiple past prize winners.
In her "Note from the editor," Elizabeth Spayd writes: "CJR chose the subject of the Pulitzer Prize for our first special print edition because it offers a rich means to observe the craft of journalism — its powers and its shortcomings.
"The conceit of the issue is this: We asked nine Pulitzer Prize winners to write, not about their own work, but about some other Pulitzer winner’s work."
Current board member and 2005 nonfiction winner Steve Coll asks whether the Pulitzers can save local news. Mike Sager, who was a colleague of Janet Cooke at the Washington Post, considers her fabricated tale about an 8-year-old drug addict that led her to return the award. Ann Telnaes tells readers why fellow editorial cartooning winner Pat Oliphant "is deserving of pretty much every award you could throw at him."
Photo essays as well as deep dives on Civil Rights, the Pentagon Papers and more portray the depth and breadth of journalism that has captured the Pulitzer board's attention since the first group of prizes was awarded in 1917.
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