The New York Times took home four Pulitzer Prizes on Monday while the New Yorker earned three and the Washington Post was recognized for its swift reporting on the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump.
The 2024 Pulitzer Prizes, honoring excellence in journalism and the arts, highlighted coverage of topics ranging from drug policy failures and war reporting to civil rights and the inner workings of major tech figures.
ProPublica won the prestigious public service award for a second consecutive year, with reporters Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser, Cassandra Jaramillo, and Stacy Kranitz honored for exposing how strict abortion laws delayed urgent care for pregnant women, leading to preventable deaths.
The series shed light on the consequences of post-Roe legislation and ignited further debate over the intersection of medical ethics and politics. The Washington Post was awarded for its breaking news coverage of the attempted assassination of Trump, praised as “urgent and illuminating” by the Pulitzer board.
The award recognized the work of several journalists, including photographer Doug Mills of the New York Times, who captured the moment of the shooting, including an image that froze a bullet in midair near the presidential candidate.
The Post’s win was also shadowed by the departure of Ann Telnaes, a Pulitzer-winning editorial cartoonist who left the publication after it declined to run one of her cartoons mocking tech executives’ ties to Trump, including the Post’s own owner Jeff Bezos. The Pulitzer board acknowledged her “fearlessness,” suggesting that her stance had not gone unnoticed.
In total, the Pulitzer board handed out journalism prizes in fifteen categories and eight additional awards in the arts, covering books, music, and theater. The public service winner receives a gold medal, while all other categories are accompanied by a fifteen-thousand-dollar award.
The New York Times demonstrated its international reach with reporting recognized from Afghanistan, Sudan, Baltimore, and Butler, Pennsylvania. Azam Ahmed, Christina Goldbaum, and contributing writer Matthieu Aikins won for explanatory reporting for their examination of American policy failures in Afghanistan, while Declan Walsh and Times staff earned another for their investigation into the ongoing conflict in Sudan.
Doug Mills’ photography, capturing the chaos and violence of the Trump shooting, secured a separate Pulitzer for breaking news photography. The Times also shared a local reporting prize with The Baltimore Banner for a joint investigation into the city’s fentanyl epidemic, particularly its devastating impact on Black men.
Reporters Alissa Zhu, Nick Thieme, and Jessica Gallagher conducted the reporting for the Banner, which was launched just three years ago as a response to declining local journalism in Baltimore.
Kimi Yoshino, the Banner’s editor in chief, celebrated the achievement, saying, “This is a huge milestone for us. I told the newsroom today that never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be here at this moment. It is a testament to the power of local news, the need for local news and what journalists can do when they focus on important stories in our community.”
She also mentioned that the Banner developed a statistical model to analyze the crisis, which was shared with reporters in cities such as Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco, contributing to broader national coverage of fentanyl’s reach.
Reuters received a Pulitzer for its own investigation into fentanyl distribution and regulation, outlining how systemic weaknesses both in the United States and abroad have allowed the drug to remain widely available and inexpensive.
The work was recognized for showing the global dimensions of the opioid crisis and tracing its effects across multiple continents. inewsource.org in San Diego was listed as a finalist in the category of illustrated reporting and commentary for its own in-depth work on fentanyl.
The New Yorker had a strong showing, winning three Pulitzers, including one for Mosab Abu Toha for commentary pieces about Gaza, another for the podcast series “In the Dark,” which chronicled the killing of Iraqi civilians by U.S. military forces, and a third for feature photography, with Moises Saman’s haunting images of Syria’s Sednaya prison offering a visceral depiction of life inside one of the Middle East’s most notorious detention centers.
The Wall Street Journal secured a Pulitzer for its coverage of Elon Musk, examining the tech mogul’s shift toward conservative politics, his personal use of both legal and illegal substances, and his private communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Journal was also recognized as a finalist for its reporting on Evan Gershkovich, a reporter imprisoned in Russia, which the Pulitzer board described as “cool-headed.” The publication’s reporting on Musk drew particular interest as the billionaire’s influence has grown across both tech and political landscapes.
A special citation was awarded posthumously to Chuck Stone, an early pioneer of civil rights journalism and the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News.
Stone also founded the National Association of Black Journalists and was honored for his decades of work covering racial injustice and advocating for media diversity. His recognition stands as a tribute to journalists whose impact has extended beyond any single publication or era.
Mark Warren of Esquire won the feature writing award for his portrait of a Baptist pastor and small-town mayor who died by suicide after a conservative news outlet exposed his hidden online life.
The story was noted for its compassion and depth, portraying the complex pressures facing small-town figures navigating private trauma and public scrutiny.
Alexandra Lange, a contributing writer for Bloomberg CityLab, won in criticism for her writing about the design of public spaces and their influence on families and communities.
Her essays were described as “graceful and genre-expanding,” reflecting how architecture and urban planning affect everyday life, especially for parents and children seeking inclusive and safe spaces.
The Houston Chronicle won the editorial writing prize for a series on dangerous train crossings, with journalists Raj Mankad, Sharon Steinmann, Lisa Falkenberg, and Leah Binkovitz documenting incidents and infrastructure failures that have contributed to fatalities across Texas.
The series prompted local reviews of safety protocols and was praised for its persistent and solutions-focused journalism. Across all categories, the 2024 Pulitzers celebrated a wide array of stories from both large national institutions and emerging local outlets.
From high-profile breaking news such as the Trump assassination attempt to deeply personal narratives and structural investigations, this year’s honorees reflected the evolving nature of journalism and its enduring role in holding power to account.
The choices made by the Pulitzer board also underscored the increasing importance of collaborations between local and national outlets, especially as newsrooms continue to navigate shrinking resources and shifting public trust.
