This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, April 20, 2011 - Congratulations to ProPublica for winning the first Pulitzer Prize ever given for reporting that did not appear in print. For those who still had any doubt, this is proof that digital nonprofit news organizations offer a promising future for good journalism.
Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein earned the national reporting award for The Wall Street Money Machine, a project done with public radio partners "Planet Money" and "This American Life." The project exposed "questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the nation's economic meltdown, using digital tools to help explain the complex subject to lay readers," the award citation said.
Two songs and a comic strip accompany the reporting -- ProPublica editor Paul Steiger points out -- indications that the work blends traditional journalism with some unconventional experimentation.
The quality of ProPublica's work, on this project and others, should lay to rest any lingering suspicion that digital reporting is inherently less reliable, less responsible or less thorough than its print counterpart. In fact, the digital world offers unlimited space and multiple tools that can make the work both deeper and more accessible.
ProPublica shows that excellent journalism can flourish online -- but not necessarily that it will. ProPublica has deep pockets, prestigious partners and national visibility -- assets that most nonprofit news organizations can't match. Yet big national organizations like ProPublica can't provide the local perspective and depth that people need. Nor can they provide the business model to sustain local news organizations.
At the Beacon, we're tackling those challenges. We focus on news that matters to St. Louisans -- facts, context and thoughtful discussion that help you understand issues rather than feeling overwhelmed by them. And we use a business model that puts this mission at the center. We're excited to be part of the tumultuous innovation now underway in media and pleased to celebrate the milestone ProPublica achieved this week.