UPDATED: List of Leaked Pulitzer Finalists Expanded!

By: Joe Strupp It didn't take long for the Pulitzer Prize finalist lists to begin leaking out. Within hours of the 14 Pulitzer juries packing up to go home on Wednesday after three days of judging at Columbia University, the names of this year's alleged finalists began to spread.

So far, E&P has compiled a likely list of 11 of the 14 journalism finalist groups. We also added today the third finalist in the breaking news category: the Louisville Courier-Journal for its coverage of the Com Air plane crash. Rumor had it that one of the Kentucky papers had won for its coverage of that disaster -- the Lexington Herald-Leader being the other -- but Louisville got the votes.

Yesterday we revealed, in a separate story, that the Los Angeles Times had earned two nods in the criticism category, with the L.A. Weekly getting the third. The odd detail: the two L.A. Times candidates had nominated themselves, and the judges picked them over the three put forward by the paper.

The list that follows was compiled from multiple sources -- based on chats with some judges and editors at some newspapers that received firm word -- with at least two confirming their accuracy. E&P has been publishing these leaked lists for five years and they have proven to be very accurate in the past. Indeed, in the six days since we published most of this, we have not heard of a single error. However, as we always note: This is NOT official and mistakes can happen.

Of course, when the full 18-person Pulitzer Board meets April 12-13, it has the power to delete or shift any of these selections. But for the moment, these appear to be the lucky nominees.


Local Reporting

1. The Miami Herald - "House of Lies"
2. The Boston Globe - "Debtor's Hell"
3. The Sun of Baltimore


International Reporting

1. The Wall Street Journal - China
2. Los Angeles Times - Iraq
3. The Washington Post - Lebanon


Public Service

1. The Wall Street Journal - Backdating investments
2. The Washington Post - Farm subsidies
3. Birmingham News - Community college corruption


Investigative Journalism

1. Hartford Courant - Mentally Ill soldiers
2. The Seattle Times - "Your Courts, Their Secrets"
3. The Seattle Times - "License to Harm"


Explanatory journalism

1. Los Angeles Times - "Altered Oceans"
2. The New York Times - Diabetes
3. The Virginian-Pilot - Security firm


National Reporting

1. Chicago Tribune - Death penalty
2. The Oregonian - Charity investigation
3. The Boston Globe - Signing statements


Commentary

1. Joe Nocera - The New York Times
2. Cynthia Tucker - Atlanta Journal Constitution
3. Ruth Marcus - The Washington Post


Breaking News

1. The Oregonian - Lost Family
2. The Denver Post - Blizzards
3. Louisville Courier-Journal - Com Air plane crash


Feature Writing

1. The Oregonian
2. The New York Times
3. St. Petersburg Times.


Editorial Cartoonist

1. Walt Handelsman - Newsday
2. Nick Anderson - Houston Chronicle
3. Mike Thompson - Detroit Free Press


Criticism

1. Christopher Knight - Los Angeles Times
2. Mark Swed - Los Angeles Times
3. Jonathan Gold - LA Weekly

Those categories yet to be fleshed out include editorial writing, breaking news photography, feature photography, and criticism.

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Related E&P story: Pulitzer Judging Starts -- So Step Inside the Jury Room