How Do You Win a Pulitzer Prize?

Before you ask why I feel authoritative on the subject of journalism and The Pulitzer Prize, I will restate my credentials. I spent two years in high school as an Editor for our newspaper. I have been a published poet (in print and online) since 1989. I majored in English Education in college and taught English, Critical Thinking, and Language Arts to high school students before I retired. I also worked for The Tampa Tribune in 2002. Now that you know how my history provides an intellectual authoritative voice, I will continue with my review.

On a five star rating chart (five being equal to The Pulitzer Prize and zero being equal to "hang it up, you're hopeless") I give our city's local newspaper (Tampa Bay Times) a rating of 2.4. It needs much improvement in my professional opinion. I've watched it change over the years more than a name change. I've seen it dwindle from a classifieds section that once contained over 5 pages down to about 2 pages. I've seen the advertisements dwindle down from full page glossy inserts donated by once thriving stores like Macys, Dillards, and the like, to half page inserts from another competing health insurance company. I've also seen the circulation and distribution numbers dwindle down while the price of subscriptions and newstand costs went up. What went wrong? Did Craigslist and apps like "Letgo" really destroy the business of Journalism? Or is their financial demise connected to the recession? Or is it simply because their writing staff continues to editorialize instead of reporting the facts? I believe it's a combination of all three factors, but the fall guy (where I want to point my blaming finger) has to be the Editor-in-Chief and the CFO. Allowing their staff writers to continually put out bunk, and allowing the advertising team to sink, is unnacceptable behavior for Newspaper leadership.

I'm not going to bash the paper completely. I'm going to talk about why I care enough to write this negative review and also offer tips on how the Tampa Bay Times can strive for Pulitzer Prize winning writing again and revamp their advertising tactics. But before I do that, I am going to boldly state that after reading two articles from the Sunday, November 17th, 2024 issue, I consider some of their hired writers pathological anarchists. Divya Kumar and Christopher O'Donnel are not writing quality news reports for the Local and State section. They are writing "glimmering generalities" and insulting the public's intelligence. They are editorializing in a section that requires the facts. I consider that weak and lazy and manipulative. Not Pulitzer Prize winning. What happened to reporters who actually did their research and presented the readers with facts? I will write another editorial about the two articles that formulated my opinion, but for now I will continue with how to improve the newspaper.

Beginning with the Advertising section, which is how the writers get paid and how the paper is able to afford print and delivery. Every Newspaper Leader should be aware of how important the Advertisment section is to continuing Newspaper business. There is no money and therefore no production without the Advertising section. If you write for the newspaper and you don't care about the Pulitzer Prize because you're just happy you get a paycheck, then you ought to be kissing the ad departments a** everyday. Without them bringing in those ads, you get no paycheck, and without them, the newspaper will fail even if you win a Pulitzer Prize.

Regarding quality writing and going for the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, I will say that the Tampa Bay Times does have some good writers. A long time employee of the paper is Jeff Hess and I admire his work immensely. However Mr. Hess is unlikely to be nominated for a Pulitzer because his writing is not of the editorial style. He writes for the features section (which is attached to the remnants of the Classified ads section) called "Baylink" and his articles are focused on valuables and their "worth". I think he deserves his earnings and is one of the better aspects of our paper. At least I don't feel insulted when I read his works.

My advice is simple. Stop treating your readers as if we are uneducated. If we have enough money to buy a subscription or consider journalism a worthy purchase at the newstand, then don't belittle us with pathological writing intended to raise our blood pressure and showing no research or facts to back it up.

If you want to increase revenue, your target is always subscribers and advertisers. Those are your "customers" and that's the point of your business. If you don't consider print journalism business, then get out of the business. If you're focused on what the writers opinions are and not circulation and advertising numbers, you are not fit to lead a newspaper business.

I care. I consider myself a fair and intelligent journalist. I'm also a customer and could be a subscriber or advertiser. I like the city to have a well-written and respected newspaper. Not only is that traditional, when operating effectively, it's very beneficial to everyone in the city. Please, raise the bar Tampa Bay Times. You are not "Creative Loafing". You have to have better and different standards. If you work for Tampa Bay Times and you don't know what I'm talking about, you should be fired. If you do know what I'm talking about, you belong there.