Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Glenn Kramon: No, The Pulitzer Prize Winners Don't Give Us One Lousy Dime.

In today's website edition of "Talk To The Newsroom," assistant managing editor Glenn Kramon tacitly acknowledges the shocking truth that NYT Pulitzer Prize winners keep the whole ten grand for themselves, usually. They don't share. Although, yes, now that you mention it, he's heard of somebody giving the prize to charity. Can't remember now, but it sure as hell wasn't Walt Bogdanich, that cheap no-good bastard.

Sharing the Booty

Q. At The Times, when an individual writer or photographer wins a Pulitzer, does she or he share any of the rewards with the writer's editors and/or copy editors?

— Alex Cruden

A. Mr. Cruden: The winners of all the journalism categories (except Public Service) receive $10,000. I’ve heard of winners donating the money to charity. As for editors and copy editors, they’re happy to receive a shout-out when the awards are announced, as occurred in our newsroom last Monday. Without exception the winners of the five prizes graciously thanked editors behind the scenes: Holland Carter, the art critic (and all-around good guy), who won for criticism, took it to a higher level: he thanked not only Sam Sifton,the Culture editor, and his personal editor, Nancy Kenney, but also, name by name, Sam’s deputies and assistants, and every single member of the Culture copy desk. “It was the nicest gesture I’ve ever seen,’’ said Ron Wertheimer, the copy desk chief.

By the way, these days the thanks go beyond editors and copy editors, as when David Barstow, who won for Investigative Reporting, thanked multimedia, graphics and picture editing wizards — and also David McCraw, the newsroom lawyer who helped pry thousands of pages of documents from the Pentagon. People like David are our unsung heroes.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So the Nytpicker is Brian Stelter, or the equivalent. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Anonymous said...

Stelter, you sly fox. How do you find the time? It's impressive. But Bill Carter is on to you, so watch your back.

Anonymous said...

Bill Carter isn't on to anything. Carry on, Brian.