'N.Y. Times' Captures 7 Pulitzers

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, April 09, 2002

'N.Y. Times' Captures 7 Pulitzers

The New York Times had just won seven Pulitzers.

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The New York Times had just won seven Pulitzers.

But the tone was somber and reflective in the Times newsroom in midtown Manhattan as staffers gathered to hear what executives had to say.

Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. asked for a moment of silence for those who died in the attacks and for others, such as Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who were killed later.

In a year when stories about the war on terrorism dominated the media, the Times won a record seven Pulitzers, six of them for its war stories.

The Wall Street Journal staff, which was displaced from its offices near the World Trade Center and has yet to return, won for coverage of the terrorist attacks. The Washington Post won for its stories on America's war on terrorism.

But the prizes to the Times are a testament to that staff and the leadership of executive editor Howell Raines.

Raines, who Monday was named Editor & Publisher's editor of the year, was in his sixth day in his post when the planes hit the World Trade Center. Sulzberger called Raines at his Greenwich Village home after watching the planes hit the buildings on television.

Raines �� trying to get from his apartment to the Times �� told E&P he paid a taxi driver extra to drive him to Times Square. He paused before getting into the cab, watching the burning buildings with other people on the street. "I remember thinking, 'This is the last time today that I will experience this event directly, for I am about to be sealed inside a newsroom.' That moment was when it struck me: I've never seen New York stopped that way."

About winning, Raines told staffers: "We are ever mindful of the shattering events it was our task to record in our city, nation and world community. Your teamwork and dedication and the sacrifice of your family and loved ones have produced newspapers that served our readers and that will stand as a memorial to those who were lost."

Said managing editor Gerald Boyd: "We should not forget the pain and suffering this city and nation experienced on Sept. 11.

"Your efforts to tell that story and its aftermath, including the lives of the victims, in words and images, is the best of our journalism."

Six of the seven Times wins were explicitly for its coverage of Sept. 11 and its aftermath: the paper's "A Nation Challenged" section that ran in the months following Sept. 11 (public service); its profiles of global terrorism (explanatory reporting); Barry Bearak's coverage of life in Afghanistan (international reporting); Thomas Friedman's op-ed pieces about the worldwide impact of terrorism (commentary); and the photo staff for coverage of Sept. 11 and the aftermath (breaking news photography) and of people in Afghanistan and Pakistan (feature photography).

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