Pulitzers go to Washington Post, NY Times, Bloomberg and others

NEW YORK — The Washington Post won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service journalism for its reporting on the Trump administration’s overhaul of federal agencies that resulted in massive job cuts. The New York Times took home three awards, while Bloomberg News captured its third Pulitzer, winning the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category for a graphic feature story on digital scams in India.

Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism announced the 110th annual Pulitzer Prizes Monday in New York. The awards honored the best journalism from 2025 in 15 categories, as well as eight arts categories focused on books, drama and music. Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown won a special citation for reporting in 2017 and 2018 that exposed disgraced pedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of young women and the powerful network that protected him.

The New York Times led the awards haul with wins in the Investigative Reporting, Opinion Writing and Breaking News Photography categories. The investigative award was for stories that explored how President Donald Trump broke constraints around conflicts of interest to enrich his family and allies.

The recognition for the Washington Post comes after the newspaper went through a significant downsizing and restructuring under owner Jeff Bezos.

For Bloomberg, senior investigative reporter Natalie Obiko Pearson, illustrator Anand RK and freelance journalist Suparna Sharma won for “trAPPed,” which the university described as “a riveting account of a neurologist in India threatened with ‘digital arrest’ by phone, visuals and words that cast light on the growing challenges of surveillance and digital scams.”

With the exception of the Public Service winner, Pulitzer award recipients get a $15,000 cash prize, which was raised from $10,000 in 2017. The public-service prize is a gold medal given to a news organization and doesn’t have a monetary award.

Trump is in the process of suing current and former members of the Pulitzer board for alleged defamation. He filed the lawsuit in 2022, claiming the board members conspired against him and defamed him by refusing to rescind Pulitzer Prizes for articles on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s alleged connections.

In announcing the award winners, Marjorie Miller, administrator of the prizes, mentioned Trump’s lawsuits against the media and how journalists have been restricted in their access to the White House and Pentagon.

“We face tremendous political and economic pressures,” she said. “The Pulitzer Prizes support the First Amendment. We believe in access to government institutions and an independent press.”

Winners in journalism categories:

—PUBLIC SERVICE

Awarded to The Washington Post 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.”

—BREAKING NEWS REPORTING

Awarded to Staff of The Minnesota Star Tribune for “its coverage of a shooting in a back-to-school Mass at a Catholic school that left two children dead and 17 wounded, powerful stories marked by thoroughness and compassion.”

—INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Awarded to Staff of The New York Times 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.”

—EXPLANATORY REPORTING

Awarded to Susie Neilson, Megan Fan Munce and Sara DiNatale of the San Francisco Chronicle for their series “Burned,” “which showed how insurance companies using algorithmic tools have failed Californians who lost their homes to fire by systematically undervaluing their properties, denying claims, and making it impossible for them to rebuild.”

—BEAT REPORTING

Awarded to Jeff Horwitz and Engen Tham of Reuters for “inventive and revelatory reporting on Meta that detailed the technology company’s willingness to expose users, including children, to scams and AI manipulation.”

—LOCAL REPORTING

Awarded to Dave Altimari and Ginny Monk of The Connecticut Mirror and Sophie Chou and Haru Coryne of ProPublica for “an impressive series exposing how the state’s unique towing laws favored unscrupulous companies that overcharged residents, prompting swift and meaningful consumer protections.”

Also Awarded to Staff of the Chicago Tribune for “its powerful coverage of the Trump administration’s militarized immigration sweep of the city that described in vivid, muscular prose how the siege-like incursion of ICE agents unified Chicagoans in resistance.”

—NATIONAL REPORTING

Awarded to Staff of Reuters, notably Ned Parker, Linda So, Peter Eisler and Mike Spector, for “documenting how the president used the U.S. government and the influence of his supporters to expand executive power and exact vengeance on his foes.”

—INTERNATIONAL REPORTING

Awarded to Dake Kang, Garance Burke, Byron Tau, Aniruddha Ghosal and Yael Grauer, contributor, of Associated Press for “an astonishing global investigation into state-of-the-art tools of mass surveillance, created in Silicon Valley, advanced in China, and spreading worldwide before returning to America for secret new uses by the U.S. Border Patrol.”

—FEATURE WRITING

Awarded to Aaron Parsley of Texas Monthly for “his extraordinary personal account of survival and loss written days after the historic Central Texas floods that tore the writer’s house out from under him and his family, taking the life of his nephew.”

—CRITICISM

Awarded to Mark Lamster of The Dallas Morning News for “his rigorous and passionate architecture criticism, using wit and expertise to amplify his opinions and advocate for city residents.”

—OPINION WRITING

Awarded to M. Gessen of The New York Times for “an illuminating collection of reported essays on rising authoritarian regimes that draw on history and personal experience to probe timely themes of oppression, belonging and exile.”

—ILLUSTRATED REPORTING AND COMMENTARY

Awarded to Anand RK and Suparna Sharma, contributors, and Natalie Obiko Pearson of Bloomberg for “trAPPed,” “a riveting account of a neurologist in India threatened with ‘digital arrest’ by phone, visuals and words that cast light on the growing challenges of surveillance and digital scams.”

—BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY

Awarded to Saher Alghorra, contributor, The New York Times for “his haunting, sensitive series showing the devastation and starvation in Gaza resulting from the war with Israel.”

—FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

Awarded to Jahi Chikwendiu of The Washington Post for “a heart-wrenching and achingly beautiful photo essay on a young family welcoming the birth of their first child as the father is slowly dying from cancer.

—AUDIO REPORTING

Awarded to the Staff of Pablo Torre Finds Out for “a pioneering and entertaining form of live podcast journalism that investigated how the Los Angeles Clippers seemingly evaded the NBA’s salary cap by funneling money to a star player through an environmental startup.”

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