GULFPORT - The Sun Herald on Monday received a Pulitzer Prize for public service, and three of the newspaper's editors were listed as finalists for a prize in editorial writing.
"Today is your day, Sun Herald family," Executive Editor Stan Tiner told employees gathered in the newsroom shortly after they erupted in applause at the announcement. "You are truly the best. And to this newsroom I say this: Never have so few worked so hard and so long to tell such a story - an unending story, as you all know."
Tiner dedicated the Pulitzer Prize gold medal to the people of South Mississippi.
"Finally, this Pulitzer Prize, this gold medal, is dedicated to the people of South Mississippi whose magnificent hearts and spirit moved us every day that we have been privileged to tell the story of their struggle and triumphs," he said. "They will not be defeated, not by Katrina, or anything."
Publisher Ricky Mathews told employees: "It's been a hell of a journey, you guys, and this is the ultimate honor." Mathews said the newspaper has been "a reflection of our community: the pain, the joy, the unbelievable agony and everything that comes with that" and added that "Our best journalism is still ahead of us because this Sun Herald is in a community that has never been in the situation that we're in right now. We're in no-man's land."
The Sun Herald and the Times-Picayune of New Orleans each were awarded a Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service. The Sun Herald was recognized "for its valorous and comprehensive coverage of Hurricane Katrina, providing a lifeline for devastated readers in print and online, during their time of greatest need."
Tiner and editorial writers B. Marie Harris and Tony Biffle were finalists in the Pulitzer editorial writing category "for their passionate editorials in the wake of Hurricane Katrina that empathized with victims while pleading for relief from the outside world."
Also named as finalists Monday were reporter Jerry Mitchell of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson for beat reporting and Clarion Ledger cartoonist Marshall Ramsey for editorial cartooning.
Sun Herald staff writer and columnist Jean Prescott, a 32-year Sun Herald veteran and newsroom matriarch, said the newspaper's Katrina coverage "felt really important. It feels important when we're doing it."
"I don't normally give a rat's ass about prizes," Prescott said. "I don't usually enter contests any more - you never know who's judging them or what crazy criteria they're going to use. But I gotta tell you, this is a whole different story."
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