Gulf Coast papers win Pulitzer Prizes

Publishing amid the chaos of Katrina
Like their communities, The Sun Herald and The Times-Picayune in New Orleans took a beating from Katrina. Their buildings were damaged, advertisers and subscribers were displaced, and circulation dropped.

The Sun Herald, whose offices are less than a mile from the Mississippi Sound, never missed an edition during the crisis. Before the storm hit, the Knight Ridder-owned publication arranged to have the newspaper printed at a sister paper in Columbus, Ga., and then shipped back to Mississippi.

To ensure delivery back home, the entire staff pitched in and handed it out free at tents, damaged homes, shelters and elsewhere.

In the first days after Katrina hit on Aug. 29, The Times-Picayune was published only online. The first printed editions came Sept. 2 and were published through an arrangement with The Courier, the newspaper in Houma, La., owned by The New York Times Co.

The Times-Picayune evacuated about 240 employees in the back of newspaper delivery trucks as water from a levee breach rose around the plant, located in the central part of the city. For many staffers who remained, reporting on the breaches that eventually flooded the city was horrifying because they saw the disaster unfold in their own neighborhoods.

The paper has regained about two-thirds of its pre-storm circulation, which was 260,000 on weekdays and 285,000 on Sunday.

For the first time, applicants in all categories were allowed to include material published online as part of their entries.

The Pulitzer for public service carries a prize of a gold medal. The other prizes come with cash awards of $10,000.

The awards are given by Columbia University on the recommendation of the 18-member Pulitzer board.

The Pulitzers were created under the terms of the will of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911. He endowed the journalism school at Columbia, and dictated that money be set aside for the prizes. The first awards were handed out in 1917.

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