How Does the Pulitzer Board Fill Vacancies? An Inside Look

By: Joe Strupp Could you be the next member of the Pulitzer Prize Board? If you are among the industry's top editors, professors, or other journalistic elite, you may.

With the recent departure of longtime board members Joann Byrd, Mike Pride, and Donald Graham, the remaining 16 board members are having to select three new brethren to add to the exclusive group that determines the Pulitzer Prize winners each year.

And with applications not accepted and few rules guiding who is eligible, almost anyone from journalism's top echelon could be in the running.

"We try to fill all positions as quickly as we can," said Rich Oppel, the veteran editor of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman, an eight-year board member and a newly named board co-chair. "We don?t race headlong if there is a good reason to wait. Sometimes it takes a little extra time to vet candidates and be able to discuss (them) before we can make a decision."

One new member has already been selected: Joyce Dehli of Lee Enterprises, who was announced Thursday morning. Later this year, the board will choose two more new names, with approval likely at its November meeting.

Like many of the duties the board undertakes, choosing a new member is overseen partly by rules and partly by flexible practices. A five-to-seven member vacancies committee meets to consider candidates when an opening occurs, with the full board considering its recommendations.

No overriding guidelines are in place for candidates, and prospective members cannot formally apply for the non-paying position -- which means getting the call to serve is often a surprise. "I don?t recall anyone ever putting their name in, although that might have happened," said Oppel. "Board members have pretty wide access and knowledge of journalists and editors and people in academia."

Oppel adds that many board members "are suggested from previous Pulitzer winners. There is no shortage of great candidates out there."

Associated Press Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll, who has been on the board for four years, said: "You want the board to have a good representation of American journalism. You want people who committed different kinds of journalism so it is a reflection of the community."

Oppel declined to comment specifically on the process of electing Dehli, who was recommended by the vacancies committee on Wed., April 2. When the full board met on April 3 and 4 to consider this year's winners, it also approved Dehli's election to the board.

"There is no procedure that requires us to fill all three at once," Oppel added. "Trying to fill three at one meeting would be difficult. There is no explicit protocol for this. We gather a reasonable number of names and discuss them by phone and decide on them when we meet."

With the addition of Delhi, the board will include 16 members. Among them: Oppel, Carroll, Co-Chair Jay Harris; Lee C. Bollinger, President of Columbia University; Danielle Allen, UPS Foundation Professor, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study; Jim Amoss, Editor, Times-Picayune of New Orleans; Amanda Bennett, Executive Editor/Enterprise, Bloomberg News; Thomas L. Friedman, Columnist, The New York Times; Paul Gigot, Editorial Page Editor, The Wall Street Journal; Anders Gyllenhaal, Executive Editor, The Miami Herald; David M. Kennedy, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Stanford University; Nicholas Lemann, Dean, Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University; Ann Marie Lipinski, Senior Vice President and Editor, Chicago Tribune; Gregory L. Moore, Editor, The Denver Post; and Paul Tash, Editor, CEO, and Chairman, St. Petersburg Times.

The board breakdown right now includes nine editors, five members of academia, one columnist and one business-side executive. Oppel said there is no effort to include a balanced number of members from any area of journalistic society. "There are not quotas," he said. "The first thing we are always looking for are people of quality who can add to the board."

Carroll, who has served on the vacancies committee, said the board looks for "people who can engage those pieces of work with some ability and experience. A good, well-rounded group of journalists."