Poynter Hails Pulitzer Center as Supporting the 'World's Most Ambitious Journalism'

In a new feature, the Poynter Institute's James Warren recognized the Pulitzer Center as helping produce "the world's most ambitious journalism." From grantee and freelance journalist Iona Craig's reporting on the failed raid in Yemen, to Ben Taub's "The Assad Files," and Scott Anderson's epic "Fractured Lands" for The New York Time Magazine, Warren describes the Center as "shedding light on a lot of places, including some that are very dark," a reference to a quote by Joseph Pulitzer I. 

"That's Pulitzer Center, not Pulitzer Prizes. Same family, different generation, different operation. And more practically impactful in the wake of an implosion of journalism business models," Warren writes. This, an important and oft-misunderstood distinction. 

Warren highlights the scope and range of the Pulitzer Center's reporting projects and media partners that have been built over the years, sighting an "impressive 10-year-legacy in which the Washington-based nonprofit has supported 715 separate projects, a total of 6,168 stories in various outlets and dealt with 571 publication partners".

He also focuses on the more than two dozen awards in print, multimedia, photography, and film for Pulitzer Center-backed reporting the center has received in the past year alone, in addition to the more than $31.6 million dollars the Pulitzer Center has raised for reporting projects since its inception in 2005.

The piece also touches on the optimisic side of freelance journalism, and the role Pulitzer Center plays in such a forboding time for reporters. 

"We are in the broccoli space, not cocktails and desserts space. The fact that we have created this model, and raised the money we have, should be reassuring to anybody trying to be in that space," Sawyer says in the article. 

James Warren's full article is available on Poynter's website.