Eyes On The Prize

Smashing previous records, Tufts graduate and New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s flagship newspaper earned seven Pulitzer Prizes, including the coveted public service award.

New York City [04.09.02] -- More than any other news organization, the New York Times has established a long and consistent record of Pulitzer Prize-winning news coverage. But Monday's distribution of the 2002 awards marked a first for the newspaper and its publisher -- 1974 Tufts graduate Arthur Sulzberger Jr. Smashing previous records, the 150-year-old Times earned a record seven Pulitzers, including the highly coveted gold medal for Public Service.

   Explaining their decision to award the prestigious Public Service award to the Times for its "A Nation Challenged" section on the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pulitzer Board said, "[The New York Times] coherently and comprehensively covered the tragic events, profiled the victims and tracked the developing story, locally and globally."

   According to a Los Angeles Times article, the stand-alone section was printed every day for nearly four months following the attacks.

   "It included more than 1,800 'Portraits of Grief,' brief character sketches of people killed that day," reported the newspaper.

   Sulzberger, who was awarded the University's Light on the Hill award in 1996 for his work at the Times, was appointed publisher in 1992, following a 14-year career spanning both the news and business operations of the newspaper. Since he assumed the Times' top post, the newspaper has been awarded 18 Pulitzer Prizes.

   "The New York Times, which has now won 88 Pulitzers, more than any other news organization, also won for international reporting, beat reporting, explanatory journalism, feature photography, news photography and commentary," reported the Los Angeles Times. "The previous record for Pulitzers in one year was three -- a mark achieved four times by the New York Times, twice by the Washington Post and once by the Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe."

   The Times' sweep of the photography Pulitzers this year is also quite unusual.

   "In a rare double award for photography, the Times received prizes in both the breaking news and feature categories -- breaking news for a portfolio of work by 14 photographers who covered the events of Sept. 11, and feature for five photographers' work in Pakistan and Afghanistan," the New York Times reported in today's newspaper.

   After Sulzberger praised his staff for the achievement, the Tufts graduate called for a moment of silence to remember the thousands of people killed in the attacks as well as the war in Afghanistan.

   "We are witness to an extraordinary moment in the history of this newspaper, just an extraordinary moment," Sulzberger said. "But it is built on the back of a real tragedy."

Photos courtesy the New York Times Co.