Even with COVID-19 still among us, 2021 turned out to be a much better year in Minnesota journalism than 2020, with a lot more positive developments and signs of optimism for the future.
1. The Star Tribune wins a Pulitzer
The Strib’s ongoing reporting on the 2020 death of George Floyd, with police reporter Libor Jany writing or co-writing three of the five story entries, brought journalism’s highest honor to Minnesota’s largest news-gathering organization. The Pulitzer jury praised the Strib “for its urgent, authoritative and nuanced coverage of the death of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis and of the reverberations that followed.” The comprehensive entry included photos and an interactive graphic.
It was the paper’s fourth Pulitzer since the morning Tribune and afternoon Star merged in 1982, and the first since winning two in 2013 — Steve Sack for editorial cartooning, and Brad Schrade, Jeremy Olson and Glenn Howatt for local reporting.
The St. Paul Pioneer Press won three Pulitzers from 1986 to 2000. The last, by sportswriter George Dohrmann, exposed academic fraud in the University of Minnesota men’s basketball program that led to NCAA sanctions.
By the way: The Strib’s reporting team included Jackie Crosby, now a two-time Pulitzer winner. Crosby and Macon (Ga.) Telegraph and News colleague Randall Savage shared a 1985 Pulitzer for Specialized Reporting, making Crosby, then…
