A Pulitzer Win in Baltimore and the Future of Local News

The Baltimore Banner, a local newsroom only three years old, won a Pulitzer today.

At a time when journalism faces enormous financial strain, local papers are shuttering and national media are laying off, with press freedoms under constant fire, to see such a young news organization not just survive but thrive, is cause for optimism.

Let’s hear from the Banner directly:
“The Baltimore Banner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for groundbreaking local journalism that exposed Baltimore as the deadliest large city in the nation for drug overdoses, calling attention to a crisis that has unfolded as government officials paid little attention to the problem and treatment centers were poorly regulated.

“The three Banner journalists spearheading the project – reporter Alissa Zhu, photojournalist Jessica Gallagher, and data specialist Nick Thieme — worked for nearly two years. They pieced together chilling patterns from reams of previously shielded records, and hit the streets to tell the stories of those addicted to opioids and those who’ve lost family and friends. The project was done in collaboration with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

“A deep look at drug overdoses was among the most ambitious early ideas at The Banner as editors recognized that a crisis killing thousands of people in the city annually was going underreported — and overlooked.”

Enterprise journalism like this is not cheap. Nearly two years dedicated to investigations is a significant investment. It is all to rare today in journalism.

CEO Bob Cohn says The Banner is on its way to profitability and will be a model for independent journalism.

The amount of amazing journalism highlighted by the Pulitzers today is worth celebration. I hope you’ll take the time to read the series that put The Baltimore Banner on the map.

The headline alone should stop you in your tracks:
Almost 6,000 Dead in 6 Years: How Baltimore Became the U.S. Overdose Capitalt a Pulitzer Win in Baltimore Tells Us About the Future of Local News