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TEMPLE: Of prizes and everyday rewards

By John Temple, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 12, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Before I begin, let me stipulate: Journalism has too many prizes.

Way too many.

They're a distraction from what's important for newspapers. They can send the wrong message, that what's important is recognition from our peers, when what really matters is serving you, the reader.

That's why I regret the proliferation of journalism awards. The more there are the less they're worth. I'd love to see journalistic organizations - I hope you're listening, Denver Press Club and Colorado Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists - dump their contests and focus instead on improving the craft itself.

That said, there are some prizes that really do matter. And the one that still matters the most is the Pulitzer.

That's why on Monday eyes in newsrooms across the country were glued to computer screens awaiting the announcement of this year's winners.

Both Denver papers had finalists.

Kevin Vaughan of the Rocky was in the top three in the nation for feature writing for his series, "The Crossing," which chronicled how one moment in time - a passenger train ripping through a school bus, killing 20 children - had reverberated through the lives of the survivors and the families of the victims over more than 40 years.

Miles Moffeit and Susan Greene of the Post were finalists in the investigative reporting category for "their reports on how destruction of evidence in criminal cases across the nation can free the guilty and convict the innocent, prompting official efforts to correct breakdowns."

In the most remarkable twist, a 30-year-old photographer who was to start work at the Rocky Monday instead returned to her former paper - just for the day - to celebrate a wonderful and richly deserved honor, her own first Pulitzer. Preston Gannaway's "intimate chronicle of a family coping with a parent's terminal illness" had been part of the portfolio that convinced us to hire her. Her sensitivity, eye and commitment were obvious.

I had a special interest in the awards this year because for the first time I served on a jury, a panel of seven that evaluated more than 160 entries in the Commentary category. We selected the three finalists from which the Pulitzer board later picked the winner, Steven Pearlstein of The Washington Post.

What I learned from that experience was that truly no award is taken so seriously by those asked to winnow the candidates. We worked for three full days. The quality of entries was very high. I can easily say that 60 or so were worth serious consideration and that after we cut the group to 20 it was painful to see some entries knocked off the table.

In every major contest I've judged, the finalists have been of such high caliber that it's been difficult, even excruciating, to pick the ulitmate winner. I wish it weren't so. I wish I'd once run into a clear-cut choice. But that's never been the case.

It's not my goal at the Rocky to win national awards. But it is my goal to do work worthy of consideration for them.

I say that not just because the recognition brings honor to a paper and to individuals, but primarily because I've found this approach helps set a standard, a bar that we can use to elevate the quality of our daily journalism. What we learn from our extraordinary efforts makes us better in our daily work.

That was the case with "The Crossing." When I hear journalists complain that they don't do the work they're capable of because of this or that restriction at their newspaper, I think of Kevin Vaughan. His is an example of how one individual, totally committed to a story, can make a huge difference, not only in the lives of the people he writes about, but also in the lives of his colleagues.

A common denominator of the best work is a deep commitment on the part of an individual to tell a story.

"The Crossing" was Kevin's idea. But we eventually built a team of more than a dozen people who worked on the series, plus a number of assorted advisers.

What that experience working together taught us has impacted how we cover the news. You can see us experiment more readily with different approaches to writing stories. We play more with the lighting of portraits, inspired by the work of photographer Chris Schneider in "The Crossing."

Extraordinary efforts lift the whole newsroom. They make us hungry to do something even better. That, and not prizes, is why they matter so.

John Temple can be reached at editor@RockyMountainNews.com or by mail at 101 W. Colfax, Suite 500, Denver, CO 80202.

Comments

  • April 14, 2008

    6:25 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    foofaraw writes:

    "Extraordinary efforts lift the whole newsroom. They make us hungry to do something even better. That, and not prizes, is why they matter so."

    Then I'd like to see the News not submit any of its project journalism, for the coming year, for any award.

    Let the extraordinary efforts speak for themselves, and prove they weren't motivated, in any way, by the thought of prestige coming on the back end.