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Editorial Writing

Finalists have been announced since 1980. Full texts, photographs and cartoons are available for Journalism winners from 1995–2013 only.

Winners

2013 Tim Nickens and Daniel Ruth Tampa Bay Times

For their diligent campaign that helped reverse a decision to end fluoridation of the water supply for the 700,000 residents of the newspaper’s home county

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2012 No award

No award

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2011 Joseph Rago The Wall Street Journal

For his well crafted, against-the-grain editorials challenging the health care reform advocated by President Obama.

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2010 Tod Robberson, Colleen McCain Nelson and William McKenzie The Dallas Morning News

For their relentless editorials deploring the stark social and economic disparity between the city’s better-off northern half and distressed southern half.

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2009 Mark Mahoney The Post-Star, Glens Falls, NY

For his relentless, down-to-earth editorials on the perils of local government secrecy, effectively admonishing citizens to uphold their right to know.

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2008 No award

No award.

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2007 Arthur Browne, Beverly Weintraub and Heidi Evans New York Daily News

For their compassionate and compelling editorials on behalf of Ground Zero workers whose health problems were neglected by the city and the nation.

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2006 Rick Attig and Doug Bates The Oregonian, Portland

For their persuasive, richly reported editorials on abuses inside a forgotten Oregon mental hospital.

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2005 Tom Philp The Sacramento Bee

For his deeply researched editorials on reclaiming California's flooded Hetch Hetchy Valley that stirred action.

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2004 William R. Stall Los Angeles Times

For his incisive editorials that analyzed California's troubled state government, prescribed remedies and served as a model for addressing complex state issues.

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2003 Cornelia Grumman Chicago Tribune

For her powerful, freshly challenging editorials on reform of the death penalty.

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2002 Alex Raksin and Bob Sipchen Los Angeles Times

For their comprehensive and powerfully written editorials exploring the issues and dilemmas provoked by mentally ill people dwelling on the streets.

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2001 David Moats Rutland (VT) Herald

For his even-handed and influential series of editorials commenting on the divisive issues arising from civil unions for same-sex couples.

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2000 John C. Bersia The Orlando Sentinel

For his passionate editorial campaign attacking predatory lending practices in the state, which prompted changes in local lending regulations.

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1999 Editorial Board Daily News, New York, NY

For its effective campaign to rescue Harlem's Apollo Theatre from the financial mismanagement that threatened the landmark's survival.

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1998 Bernard L. Stein The Riverdale (NY) Press

For his gracefully-written editorials on politics and other issues affecting New York City residents.

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1997 Michael Gartner The Daily Tribune, Ames, Iowa

For his common sense editorials about issues deeply affecting the lives of people in his community.

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1996 Robert B. Semple The New York Times

For his editorials on environmental issues.

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1995 Jeffrey Good The St. Petersburg (FL) Times

For his editorial campaign urging reform of Florida's probate system for settling estates.

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1994 R. Bruce Dold Chicago Tribune

For his series of editorials deploring the murder of a 3-year-old boy by his abusive mother and decrying the Illinois child welfare system.

1993 (No Award)
1992 Maria Henson Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader

For her editorials about battered women in Kentucky, which focused statewide attention on the problem and prompted significant reforms.

1991 Ron Casey, Harold Jackson and Joey Kennedy The Birmingham (AL) News

For their editorial campaign analyzing inequities in Alabama's tax system and proposing needed reforms.

1990 Thomas J. Hylton The Pottstown (PA) Mercury

For his editorials about a local bond issue for the preservation of farmland and other open space in rural Pennsylvania.

1989 Lois Wille Chicago Tribune

For her editorials on a variety of local issues.

1988 Jane Healy Orlando Sentinel

For her series of editorials protesting overdevelopment of Florida's Orange County.

1987 Jonathan Freedman The Tribune, San Diego, CA

For his editorials urging passage of the first major immigration reform act in 34 years.

1986 Jack Fuller Chicago Tribune

For his editorials on constitutional issues.

1985 Richard Aregood The Philadelphia Daily News

For his editorials on a variety of subjects.

1984 Albert Scardino Georgia Gazette, Savannah, GA

For his series of editorials on various local and state matters.

1983 Miami Herald Editorial Board The Miami Herald

For its campaign against the detention of illegal Haitian immigrants by federal officials.

1982 Jack Rosenthal The New York Times
1981 (No Award)
1980 Robert L. Bartley The Wall Street Journal
1979 Edwin M. Yoder Jr. The Washington Star
1978 Meg Greenfield of The Washington Post, deputy editorial page editor

For selected samples of her work.

1977 Warren L. Lerude, Foster Church and Norman F. Cardoza Reno (Nev.) Evening Gazette and Nevada State Journal

For editorials challenging the power of a local brothel keeper.

1976 Philip P. Kerby Los Angeles Times

For his editorials against government secrecy and judicial censorship.

1975 John Daniell Maurice Charleston (WV) Daily Mail

For his editorials about the Kanawha County schoolbook controversy.

1974 F. Gilman Spencer of The Trentonian, Trenton, NJ, editor

For his courageous campaign to focus public attention on scandals in New Jersey's state government.

1973 Roger B. Linscott Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, MA

For his editorials during 1972.

1972 John Strohmeyer Bethlehem (PA) Globe-Times

For his editorial campaign to reduce racial tensions in Bethlehem.

1971 Horance G. Davis Jr. The Gainesville (FL) Sun

For his editorials in support of the peaceful desegregation of Florida's schools.

1970 Philip L. Geyelin The Washington Post

For his editorials during 1969.

1969 Paul Greenberg Pine Bluff (AR) Commercial

For his editorials during 1968.

1968 John S. Knight Knight Newspapers

For his distinguished editorial writing.

1967 Eugene Patterson The Atlanta Constitution

For his editorials during the year.

1966 Robert Lasch St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For his distinguished editorial writing in 1965.

1965 John R. Harrison Gainesville (FL) Sun

For his successful editorial campaign for better housing in his city.

1964 Hazel Brannon Smith Lexington (MS) Advertiser

For steadfast adherence to her editorial duty in the face of great pressure and opposition.

1963 Ira B. Harkey Pascagoula (MS) Chronicle

For his courageous editorials devoted to the processes of law and reason during the integration crisis in Mississippi in 1962.

1962 Thomas M. Storke Santa Barbara (CA) News-Press

For his forceful editorials calling public attention to the activities of a semi-secret organization known as the John Birch Society.

1961 William J. Dorvillier San Juan (Puerto Rico) Star

For his editorials on clerical interference in the 1960 gubernatorial election in Puerto Rico.

1960 Lenoir Chambers Norfolk Virginian-Pilot

For his series of editorials on the school integration problem in Virginia, as exemplified by "The Year the Schools Closed," published January 1, 1959, and "The Year the Schools Opened," published December 31, 1959.

1959 Ralph McGill The Atlanta (GA) Constitution

For his distinguished editorial writing during 1958 as exemplified in his editorial "A Church, A School...." and for his long, courageous and effective editorial leadership.

1958 Harry S. Ashmore Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock, AR

For the forcefulness, dispassionate analysis and clarity of his editorials on the school integration conflict in Little Rock.

1957 Buford Boone Tuscaloosa (AL) News

For his fearless and reasoned editorials in a community inflamed by a segregation issue, an outstanding example of his work being the editorial entitled, "What a Price for Peace," published on February 7,1956.

1956 Lauren K. Soth Register and Tribune, Des Moines, IA

For the editorial inviting a farm delegation from the Soviet Union to visit Iowa, which led directly to the Russian farm visit to the U.S..

1955 Royce Howes Detroit Free Press

For an editorial on "The Cause of a Strike," impartially and clearly analyzing the responsibility of both labor and management for a local union's unauthorized strike in July, 1954, which rendered 45,000 Chrysler Corporation workers idle and unpaid. By pointing out how and why the parent United Automobile Workers' Union ordered the local strike called off and stating that management let dissatisfaction get out of hand, the editorial made a notable contribution to public understanding of the whole program of the respective responsibilities and relationships of labor and management in this field.

1954 Don Murray Boston Herald

For a series of editorials on the "New Look" in National Defense which won wide attention for their analysis of changes in American military policy.

1953 Vermont Connecticut Royster The Wall Street Journal

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1952 Louis LaCoss St. Louis Globe Democrat

For his editorial entitled, "The Low Estate of Public Morals."

1951 William Harry Fitzpatrick New Orleans States

For his series of editorials analyzing and clarifying a very important constitutional issue, which is described by the general heading of the series, "Government by Treaty."

1950 Carl M. Saunders Jackson (MI) Citizen Patriot

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1949 Herbert Elliston The Washington Post

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1949 John H. Crider The Boston Herald

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1948 Virginius Dabney Richmond Times-Dispatch

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1947 William H. Grimes The Wall Street Journal

For his distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1946 Hodding Carter The Delta Democrat-Times, Greenville, MS

For a group of editorials published during the year 1945 on the subject of racial, religious and economic intolerance, as exemplified by the editorial "Go for Broke."

1945 George W. Potter The Providence Journal-Bulletin

For his editorials published during the calendar year 1944, especially for his editorials on the subject of freedom of the press.

1944 Henry J. Haskell Kansas City (MO) Star

For editorials written during the calendar year 1943.

1943 Forrest W. Seymour Register and Tribune, Des Moines, IA

For his editorials published during the calendar year 1942.

1942 Geoffrey Parsons New York Herald Tribune

For his distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1941 Reuben Maury New York Daily News

For his distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1940 Bart Howard St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For his distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1939 Ronald G. Callvert The Oregonian, Portland, OR

For his distinguished editorial writing during the year as exemplified by the editorial entitled "My Country 'Tis of Thee."

1938 William Wesley Waymack Register and Tribune, Des Moines, IA

For his distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1937 John W. Owens The Baltimore Sun

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1936 Felix Morley and George B. Parker Washington Post and Scripps-Howard Newspapers, (respectively)

For distinguished editorial writing during the year.

1935 (No Award)
1934 E. P. Chase Atlantic (IA) News-Telegraph

For an editorial entitled, "Where is Our Money ?"

1933 No author named Kansas City (MO) Star

For its series of editorials on national and international topics.

1932 (No Award)
1931 Charles S. Ryckman Fremont (NE) Tribune

For the editorial entitled "The Gentlemen from Nebraska."

1930 (No Award)
1929 Louis Isaac Jaffe Norfolk Virginian-Pilot

For his editorial entitled "An Unspeakable Act of Savagery," which is typical of a series of articles written on the lynching evil and in successful advocacy of legislation to prevent it.

1928 Grover Cleveland Hall Montgomery (AL) Advertiser

For his editorials against gangsterism, floggings and racial and religious intolerance.

1927 F. Lauriston Bullard Boston Herald

For the editorial entitled, "We Submit."

1926 Edward M. Kingsbury The New York Times

For the editorial entitled "House of a Hundred Sorrows."

1925 No author named Charleston (SC) News and Courier

For the editorial entitled "Plight of the South."

1924 The Boston Herald

For an editorial entitled "Who Made Coolidge?"

1924 Special prize of $1000 was awarded to the widow of the late Frank I. Cobb, New York World, in recognition of the distinction of her husband's editorial writing and service.
1923 William Allen White Emporia (KS) Gazette

For an editorial entitled "To an Anxious Friend."

1922 Frank M. O'Brien New York Herald

For an article entitled, "The Unknown Soldier."

1921 (No Award)
1920 Harvey E. Newbranch Evening World Herald, Omaha, NE

For an editorial entitled "Law and the Jungle."

1919 (No Award)
1918 No author named Louisville Courier Journal

For the editorial article, "Vae Victis!" and the editorial, "War Has Its Compensation."

1917 No author named New York Tribune

For an editorial article on the first anniversary of the sinking of the Lusitania.

Finalists

2013 Staff of Newsday, Long Island, N.Y.

For its editorials in the chaotic wake of Hurricane Sandy, providing a voice of reason, hope and indignation as recovery began and the future challenge of limiting shoreline devastation emerged.

2013 Jackson Diehl of The Washington Post

For his passionate editorials on the civil conflict in Syria, arguing for greater engagement by the United States to help stop bloodshed in a strategic Arab nation.

2012 Paula Dwyer and Mark Whitehouse Bloomberg News

For their analysis of and prescription for the European debt crisis, dealing with important technical questions in ways that the average readers could grasp.

2012 Tim Nickens, Joni James, John Hill and Robyn Blumner Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times

For editorials that examined the policies of a new, inexperienced governor and their impact on the state, using techniques that stretched the typical editorial format and caused the governor to mend some of his ways.

2012 Aki Soga and Michael Townsend Burlington (Vt.) Free Press

For their campaign that resulted in the state’s first reform of open government laws in 35 years, reducing legal obstacles that helped shroud the work of government officials.

2011 Jackson Diehl The Washington Post

For his insightful editorials on foreign affairs, marked by prescient pieces critical of America’s policy toward Egypt well before a revolution erupted there.

2011 John McCormick Chicago Tribune

For his relentless campaign to reform an unsustainable public pension system that threatens the economic future of Illinois.

2010 John G. Carlton St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For his editorials on health care reform that cut through the clutter, debunk myths and often bring the national debate home to Missouri.

2010 John McCormick and Marie Dillon Chicago Tribune

For their unyielding editorials urging reform of a culture of corruption in Illinois state government, repeatedly sounding the alarm when lawmakers faltered.

2009 Charles Lane The Washington Post

For his succinct and insightful editorials on the nation’s economic collapse, zeroing in on problems and offering solutions with a steady voice of reason.

2009 John McCormick, Marie Dillon and Bruce Dold Chicago Tribune

For their persistent campaign to reform statehouse ethics, drawing on corruption in the governor’s office to drive home their successful call for legislative action.

2008 Maureen Downey The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

For her compelling editorials on the harsh sentences that teenagers can receive for consensual sex in Georgia.

2008 Rodger Jones The Dallas Morning News

For his relentless editorials that led to mandating roll-call votes on all statewide legislation in Texas.

2008 Staff Wisconsin State Journal

For its persistent, high-spirited campaign against abuses in the governor's veto power.

2007 Jane Healy The Orlando Sentinel

For her persuasive heavily reported editorials on development projects that imperiled Florida's wetlands and wildlife.

2007 Sebastian Mallaby The Washington Post

For his eloquent, rigorously researched editorials on rising inequality in America.

2006 Editorial Board The Birmingham (AL) News

For its series of incisive editorials reversing the paper's long-held support of the death penalty.

2006 B. Marie Harris, Tony Biffle and Stan Tiner Sun Herald, Biloxi-Gulfport, MS

For their passionate editorials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that empathized with victims while pleading for relief from the outside world.

2005 Sebastian Mallaby The Washington Post

For his persistent and passionate editorials on the tragedy in the Darfur region of the Sudan.

2005 David Yarnold and Daniel Vasquez The Mercury News, San Jose, CA

For their forceful editorial campaign against unethical behavior in city hall that resulted in significant change.

2004 Andrew Malcolm Los Angeles Times

For his refreshing, richly textured editorials that illuminated a variety of life situations.

2004 Andres Martinez The New York Times

For his exhaustively researched series of editorials that exposed the harmful global effects of American agricultural trade policy.

2003 Robert L. Pollock The Wall Street Journal

For his clear, compelling editorials on the Food and Drug Administration's delay in approval of new cancer drugs.

2003 Linda Valdez The Arizona Republic Phoenix

For her passionate, persuasive editorials on illegal immigrants and on the state's flawed justice of the peace courts.

2002 William H. Freivogel St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For his editorials, passionate and powerful, opposing the nomination and policies of U.S. Attorney General John D. Ashcroft.

2002 Staff Philadelphia Daily News, Editorial Board

For its crusade on behalf of the city's neglected parks.

2001 Laurie Roberts The Arizona Republic Phoenix

For her persuasive editorial series urging reform of the process by which the state draws its legislative and congressional districts.

2001 Tina Rosenberg The New York Times

For her searching and knowledgeable editorials on international and human rights issues.

2000 Fred Hiatt The Washington Post

For his authoritative editorials on the crisis in Kosovo.

2000 Philip Kennicott St. Louis Post-Dispatch

For his carefully reasoned editorial campaign against the passage of a proposition to legally allow Missouri residents to carry concealed weapons.

1999 Fred Hiatt The Washington Post

For his elegantly-written editorials urging America's continued commitment to international human rights issues.

1999 Lawrence C. Levy Newsday, Long Island, NY

For his campaign that was instrumental in bringing about reform of the inequities in Long Island's system of property assessment.

1998 George B. Pyle Salina (KS) Journal

For his insightful editorials on a variety of local issues.

1998 Clint Talbott Colorado Daily, Boulder, CO

For his powerful series of editorials on the legal ordeal of a rape victim who took her case to trial. (Moved by the jury from the Commentary category.)

1997 Margaretta Downey Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal

For her editorials pressing for a civic agenda of economic and educational renewal.

1997 Peter Milius The Washington Post

For his editorials dissecting federal welfare reform legislation, directing attention to the problems of the poor and powerless.

1996 Daniel P. Henninger The Wall Street Journal

For his editorials on a wide range of topical subjects.

1996 N. Don Wycliff Chicago Tribune

For his editorials about welfare reform and its effect on children.

1995 Bailey Thomson, Carol McPhail and David Thomasson Mobile (AL) Press Register

For their series of editorials advocating the revision of Alabama's 1901 constitution.

1995 Editorial Staff The Des Moines (Iowa) Register

For its elegantly written series, "What's Right About Iowa?"

1994 Jim Montgomery Shreveport (LA) Journal

For a series of editorials examining the benefits and drawbacks of drug legalization.

1994 Editorial Board Birmingham (AL) News

For editorials urging the reform of Alabama's failing public school system.

1993 Larry Dale Keeling Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader

For his clear and persuasive editorials decrying corruption and advocating reform in the Kentucky legislature.

1993 Robert M. Landauer The Oregonian, Portland, OR

For a bold campaign to defuse myths and prejudice promoted by an anti-homosexual constitutional amendment, which was subsequently defeated.

1993 Editorial Staff The Dallas Morning News

For a campaign that focussed attention on a neglected area of the city and generated an immediate civic response to the newspaper's suggestions for change.

1992 Robert J. Gaydos Times Herald-Record, Middletown, NY

For his editorials on a variety of local and national issues.

1992 Henry Bryan The Philadelphia Inquirer

For his editorial campaign urging state support of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit System, the fourth largest mass-transit system in the nation.

1991 Seth Lipsky Forward, a New York City weekly

For his editorials on a variety of national issues, including some of specific interest to the American Jewish community.

1991 Martin F. Nolan The Boston Globe

For his editorial series "Why Politics Stinks," which called for reform of the nation's troubled political system.

1990 David C. Anderson The New York Times

For his editorials on drugs and the homeless.

1990 Leonard Morris News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, IN

For his series of editorials on abortion.

1989 Bill Bishop Lexington (KY) Herald-Leader

For an editorial campaign against broad-form deeds in the state which helped convince voters to approve limits on their use.

1989 Editorial Board The New York Times

For a series of editorials about the coming generation of children threatened by poverty and about the urgent need for political intervention and reform

1988 Bernard L. Stein The Riverdale Press, Bronx, NY

For his editorials on a variety of local and national issues.

1988 Joe Dolman The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

For his editorials on the rights of Cuban refugees imprisoned in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary.

1987 Bernard L. Stein The Riverdale Press

For his editorials on various campaign issues affecting the Bronx, N.Y. community.

1987 Daniel P. Henninger The Wall Street Journal

For his editorials on medical and ethical issues, which helped inspire changes in FDA drug approval procedures.

1986 Paul Greenberg Pine Bluff (AR) Commercial

For his editorial portraits.

1986 Larry Hayes, David Berry and Barbara O. Morrow Fort Wayne (IN) Journal-Gazette

For their editorial campaign in favor of busing to achieve racially balanced schools.

1985 Jane Healy Orlando (FL) Sentinel

For her editorials on Florida's environmental problems.

1985 David E. Gillespie News and Observer, Raleigh, NC

For his editorials on various state concerns.

1984 Ralph Bennett, Jonathan Freedman and Lynne Carrier San Diego Tribune

For their series of editorials on immigration problems and policies.

1984 Lois Wille Chicago Sun-Times

For her series of editorials which stressed ways to make Chicago city government more economical and efficient.

1983 Ralph B. Bennett and Jonathan Freedman San Diego Tribune

For their editorial campaign urging passage of an immigration reform bill.

1983 Marvin Seid Los Angeles Times

For his series of editorials on the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

1982 Richard C. McCord Santa Fe Reporter
1982 Joe H. Stroud Detroit Free Press
1981 Jack Burby Los Angeles Times
1981 Kirk Scharfenberg The Boston Globe
1981 Morris S. Thompson The Miami Herald
1980 John Alexander Greensboro (NC) Daily News
1980 Alfred Ames and Joan Beck Chicago Tribune
1980 Bruce C. Davidson, Thomas N. Oliphant and Anne C. Wyman The Boston Globe
1980 Tom Dearmore San Francisco Examiner