And the winner is … the Pulitzer winners and the stories that mattered most

If you got a glimpse into The Washington Post’s newsroom yesterday, courtesy of social media video, you saw the myriad emotions of winning a Pulitzer Prize — and of being part of a newsroom family.

 

Watch Hannah Natanson react as the Pulitzer is announced

As word came that The Washington Post won the top Prize for Public Service, members of the newsroom gasped, cheered and applauded. Some formed a supportive circle around their colleague, Hannah Natanson, who clutched a bouquet of flowers to her chest, head bowed, tears filling her eyes. Her work was central to the Post’s reporting on DOGE and the Trump administration’s targeting of federal employees and agencies — and it came at great personal cost. In January, Natanson’s home was raided by the FBI. Agents seized her digital devices and embroiled Natanson and the Post in an ongoing legal battle. According to the Pulitzer committee, they awarded The Washington Post the top honor “for piercing the veil of secrecy around the Trump administration’s chaotic overhaul of federal agencies and chronicling in rich detail the human impacts of the cuts and the consequences for the country.”

The Post was in good company in the Public Service category. The Wall Street Journal and Chicago Tribune were named as finalists.

 

See the Pulitzer Winners

Every spring, newsrooms eagerly await the announcement of the Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism. For the recipients, it’s a welcome affirmation for their tenacious reporting, adept storytelling and exemplary editorial judgment. For the broader news media, it’s an occasion to be inspired — to aspire.

The 2026 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists were announced yesterday (Monday, May 4^th). Pulitzer Prizes for Journalism are awarded in 15 categories. The announcements kicked off an afternoon of congratulatory social-media posts and videos of jubilant newsrooms receiving the news.

In addition to The Washington Post’s Pulitzer for Public Service, there were several others awarded for reporting on the President and Trump administration policies. For example, The New York Times won the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting “for deeply reported stories that exposed how President Trump has shattered constraints on conflicts of interest and exploited the moneymaking opportunities that come with power, enriching his family and allies.” The Times and M. Gessen also won in the Opinion Writing category.

The staff of the Chicago Tribune was one of two winners in the Local Reporting category, for the Tribune’s coverage of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and ICE’s immigration sweeps in the city. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker shared congratulations to the newsroom on X, stating, “The country was able to see the impacts of the Trump Administration’s chaos and violence during Operation Midway Blitz thanks to the hard work of local journalists.”

For the National Reporting category, Reuters staff — including Ned Parker, Linda So, Peter Eisler and Mike Spector — are taking top prize for documenting the President’s expansion of executive powers and a pattern of exacting retribution on his “foes.”

For some of the winners, celebration may be bittersweet, as Steve Grove expressed on LinkedIn. Grove is the CEO and publisher of The Minnesota Star Tribune, which won the Pulitzer for Breaking News.

“It’s humbling for our team to win the Pulitzer Prize today for Breaking News at The Minnesota Star Tribune. The committee gave the Strib the prize for our work covering one of the most tragic events in our community last year: the school shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, which claimed the lives of two children, Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel, and wounded 18 others,” Grove wrote. “Like the heroic first responders who rushed to the scene, our reporters and editors were there to capture the chaos — and all that followed. … One of our editors has children who were in the church when the shooting happened. She ran to check on her kids, then came back to the newsroom to share her account with colleagues as the newsroom instantly kicked into gear. I marvel at how hard our reporters work, especially in times of crisis.”

This year’s roster of Pulitzer winners and finalists showcase some exemplary narrative, visual and audio storytelling, as well. Aaron Parsley, senior editor at Texas Monthly, won the Feature Writing category for his harrowing and emotional firsthand account of the devastating Central Texas flooding, which destroyed his family’s home and took the life of his nephew.

Saher Alghorra, a visual journalist and contributor to The New York Times, won the Pulitzer for Breaking News Photography, for his work capturing war in Gaza. In the Feature Photography category, Jahi Chikwendiu, a photojournalist for The Washington Post, won for a visual essay documenting one family’s experiences welcoming a new baby to the family while the child’s father faces cancer and death. 

The award for Audio Reporting was bestowed on the staff of “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” for an investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers. The popular podcast is produced by Meadowlark Media and licensed by The New York Times’ sports site, The Athletic. Audio Reporting is the newest Pulitzer category; the first award of its kind was given in 2020.

The Pulitzer Prize committee also awarded a Special Citation this year — to the Miami Herald’s Julie K. Brown, for her hugely impactful reporting on Jeffrey Epstein and the justice system. “Her work, and the release of the government’s Epstein files, continue to reverberate around the world,” the Pulitzer judges explained in the announcement. Brown is the author of “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story.” Her reporting on Epstein carries on at “The Epstein Files by Julie K. Brown” on Substack.

Please join E&P in congratulating all the well-deserving winners and finalists. See the complete list here: https://www.pulitzer.org/prize-winners-by-year/2026. And check out E&P’s July 2026 print edition for a deep dive into several of these Pulitzer Prize-winning projects.

Gretchen A. Peck is E&P’s editor-in-chief. She welcomes your emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.