Pulitzer 2023 and miracles The 2023 Pulitzer Prizes were announced on May 8. It was an impressive and emotional Pulitzer season, highlighting a troubled and uncertain world. The AP team won the Public Journalism award for their bravery in Mariupol last spring to cover the wars between Russia and Ukraine. Or Washington Post journalist Eli Saslow won for “his emotionally charged personal story of people struggling with the pandemic, homelessness, addiction and inequality that together create a clear portrait of contemporary America.” But the 2023 Pulitzers also showed the miracles of life, the new breath in the world of journalism, when the local news site AL.com and the Archibalds won two awards. In addition, excitement also came in the Illustration and Commentary categories, when a dynamic contributor to the New York Times took home a surprise win. |
Digital transformation journey, a magical journey
In late February 2023, Alabama Media Group — part of the larger Advance Local newspaper group — stopped publishing three print newspapers: The Birmingham News, The Huntsville Times, and Mobile’s Press-Register. The closure of three long-standing newspapers continues to evoke nostalgia for the good old days of journalism. But it’s an inevitable trend in the new era, as every newspaper has had to abandon its print editions and move into the digital age.
Like many newsrooms around the planet, Alabama Media Group, with AL.com at its center, was quick to embrace the new era years ago. And impressively, they soon made even their peers jealous by successfully transitioning to digital early, while growing the newsroom from a few dozen journalists to more than 100 today.
Alabama Media Group, which includes AL.com, has just over 100 employees but has won a total of four Pulitzer Prizes in just the past five years. Photo: EP
Tom Bates, president of Alabama Media Group, said print subscriptions had fallen to the point where they were printing three times a week by 2012 and were no longer “profitable.” By contrast, the paper reaches more than a million daily readers on AL.com and digital advertising revenue has increased 67% since 2017.
Unlike other Alabama Media Group publications, AL.com does not have a paywall or stories reserved for paying subscribers. Nearly every story is free for anyone to read. Readers can choose to contribute to the site, but it is not required.
That doesn’t mean Bates and his journalists haven’t experienced economic hardships, however. Alabama Media Group has had to lay off quite a few employees over the past decade. In 2020, as advertising dried up due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employees took pay cuts or were furloughed.
But now they’ve built on their own journalism. Bates said he thinks one of the key drivers of their economic success in recent years has been their audience’s willingness to embrace digital products, including their flagship news site, AL.com.
They have also been very successful in reaching readers on social media platforms such as YouTube and Facebook, and now boast over 5 million followers across platforms. Bates says the brand has been so successful that their creative team is now being approached by many businesses in the region for collaborations and sponsorships.
As Bates explains, “national media isn’t always the best example” for local journalism because of their unique characteristics.
He added about his secret to success: “We’re doing away with what was traditionally done. Every site is interactive, they’re all truly cross-platform brands… The internet has divided us all, and it’s time we realized that.”
Alabama Media Group also has paid publications, like The Lede, an e-edition that is sent to former print subscribers of its three shuttered newspapers. The three separate editions are produced daily by a team of nine dedicated journalists, each focusing on the three newspapers’ former markets. Everything you’d expect is there, from news, interactive crosswords, and even comics, all uniquely designed for reading on a tablet.
Kelly Ann Scott, editor-in-chief of Alabama Media Group, said The Lede is meant to complement AL.com and add value by offering unique articles that delve a little deeper into specific issues. Journalists then create experiences around curated topics based on where readers live.
In particular, Alabama Media Group has launched a local investigative journalism network in the state of Alabama with in-depth investigative journalists including the Archibalds, who are both Pulitzer Prize winners, who will be mentioned below. Together, they will create stories and articles to be integrated into publications such as AL.com, The Lede or other publications of their own. And it can be said that the journey to glory at Pulitzer 2023 of Alabama Media Group in general, and the news site AL.com in particular, starts here, from its impressive digital transformation journey...
Spectacular achievements
At the 2023 Pulitzer Prize awards in May, investigative journalists John Archibald, Ramsey Archibald, Ashley Remkus and Challen Stephens of Alabama Media Group were named in the Local Journalism category for their investigation into police profiteering in Brookside, an investigation that resonated across Alabama and the nation.
Journalists Archibald and his son cannot believe that they won the 2023 Pulitzer Prize together. Photo: NYT
Not stopping there, the world press community continued to be surprised when reading further down the list of 2023 Pulitzer Prizes, when they realized that AL.com appeared once again! It was accompanied by commentator Kyle Whitmire when he appeared in the number one position in the Commentary category for the series “State of Denial” .
Throughout 2022, Whitmire has questioned and commented on the big questions facing the state of Alabama. What has made Alabama so weak and why can’t it get out of it? “State of Denial” seeks to explain and comment on how a 150-year history of turmoil and a dysfunctional political system have kept this beautiful state on the Gulf of Mexico from reaching its full potential.
Even more surprising is that AL.com journalists have actually won four Pulitzer Prizes in the past five years alone. John Archibald even won the Pulitzer for Commentary in 2018. Challen Stephens and Ashley Remkus also won in the National Journalism category in 2021. Additionally, AL.com columnist Roy S. Johnson was a finalist for Commentary in 2021.
“Local journalism is the heartbeat of journalism,” Editor-in-Chief Scott said. “A journalism that is weak locally is not healthy. We are proud to do the work that changes lives, laws, and minds here in Alabama. And we are proud to represent Alabama on the national and international stage.”
The investigation of Archibald and his colleagues
Back to the investigative reporting series that won AL.com the 2023 Pulitzer Prize. When John Archibald began investigating the local police's tricks, he had no idea it would lead to a moment of sharing Pulitzer glory with his son Ramsey Archibald, who bravely entered the profession and made even himself nervous.
Before embarking on the investigation, John had just returned from a journalism course and was determined to delve into sensitive, thorny local issues. The opportunity came when someone suggested he investigate Brookside, a small town north of Birmingham, Alabama. John began to investigate and discovered a horrifying truth: Half of the town's revenue came from police fines and other criminal fines!
Left to right: Ashley Remkus, John Archibald, Ramsey Archibald, Challen Stephens and Kyle Whitmire. Photo: AL.com
“There are things that when you see them, it makes your hair stand on end,” John said. “And that’s what happened to me when I saw that budget.” That’s when the story unfolded. Throughout 2022, he and his son Ramsey, a data reporter, investigative editor Ashley Remkus, and investigative reporter Challen Stephens went deep into the Brookside Police Department to understand how to raise revenue through fines.
Specifically, the AL.com team found that police in Brookside, a town of just over 1,200 people, collected $610,000 in fines in 2020, an average of $487 per person! Some people who were arrested by police even went into debt due to the high fines.
After AL.com’s investigative reporting was published, Brookside’s police chief resigned, the town judge was disbarred and barred from serving as a judge in the state again. The Alabama legislature passed several new laws to eliminate the mechanisms that allowed the problem and conducted town-wide inspections. Notably, some residents were exonerated from previous convictions.
A sweet ending for the Archibald family and the press
Ramsey said he couldn’t believe it when he saw his name on the 2023 Pulitzer Prize list. His parents met while working for the University of Alabama student newspaper, and he knew as a child that he wanted to be a journalist. But as he got older, he learned both appreciation and fear for the profession.
The Brookside investigation isn’t the first time Ramsey has worked with his father on a journalism project. Three years ago, he and John collaborated on an animated video called “The History of Alabama.” It was filled with inside jokes and witty wordplay, but also meaningful and, of course, very different from the serious investigation.
“We went through a lot of trouble when we went digital over a decade ago, a lot of people were laid off and it seemed like the end, I was in despair… It’s amazing that we still have these days of recognition,” said John Archibald, who started working at The Birmingham News in the 1980s .
He also said that he was very worried about his son's future when he chose to pursue journalism, which has been facing many economic difficulties in the past few decades. But now, he can be proud of Ramsey's decision to pursue journalism, after they just created a rare feat in the history of the Pulitzer Prize - the prize is considered the "Nobel Prize of Journalism" .
Tran Hoa
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