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Just two examples:
Fact #1: Reporters for the Tampa Bay Times and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune were awarded the investigative reporting prize for collaborative reporting on escalating violence in Florida mental hospitals.
Think about it: Once, these two newspapers were fierce competitors, fighting over hundreds of thousands of readers in Manatee County, FL, which separates them. Now their reporters are sharing Pulitzer champagne!
Lessons: Don’t believe the diminished strength of one publication means diminished strength across journalism. Media organizations are realigning and reorganizing to sustain quality and strength. More limited resources mean old competitors are now new partners.
Fact #2: Reporters from ProPublica and The Marshall Project won the Explanatory Reporting Pulitzer for an exposé of law enforcement’s enduring failure to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims.
Think about it: These two organizations are independent, nonprofit online organizations funded by wealthy donors. Pro Publica, started in 2007 and edited by former New York Times Washington bureau chief Steve Engelberg, focuses on investigative journalism in the public interest. The Marshall Project, started in 2013 and edited by former Times executive editor Bill Keller, concentrates on criminal justice.
Lessons: Non-profits are on the rise. They exist on the state and national level. Very experienced reporters and editors often staff the nonprofit newsrooms. Don’t dismiss them.
These changes play out in Austin, too. The Austin American-Statesman and KVUE-TV years ago entered into a deal sharing news, including a jointly conducted, hard-hitting investigation of the Travis County District Attorney’s Office.
New media partnerships and players largely share values of old media, but they confront reporting in some different ways, make heavy use of data analysis and publish on a variety of platforms — print, online and broadcast. They exist in a fast-paced, digital-first media consumption environment. This complicated environment requires smart and evolving communications strategies led by experienced hands that know the new journalists and understand the coming future.
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Rich Oppel Sr. was chairman of the Pulitzer Board in 2008-2009 and has been editor of three newspapers. He now serves as senior advisor for media strategy and engagement at Crosswind Media and Public Relations.
Underscore Media, a new creator-led media venture dedicated to New York sports, is built around three established New York sports personalities, Sal Licata, Jimmy Traina, and John Jastremski.
McClatchy, which owns 29 daily papers across 14 states (including The Miami Herald, Sacramento Bee and Kansas City Star), launches a wave of layoffs that extends to at least 13 of those papers... The Toledo Blade, which was founded in 1835, is set to shut down on Dec. 31, unless owner Block Communications manages to find a buyer for it... A bill awaiting approval by California governor Gavin Newsom would give local newsrooms a boost. 
Fox News Media issued a pretty sparse release to announce the departure of one of its stars. “Effective today, Maria Bartiromo is no longer with FOX News Media,” it reads.
Brunswick Group partner John Simons has joined CNN as senior director of business & media. He held top jobs at Time and the Wall Street Journal.
WNET, the nation’s largest public media company, names Edward O’Keefe its next president and CEO, effective September 21. O’Keefe succeeds Neal Shapiro, who becomes president emeritus and will retire at the end of the year... The Stealth Bot Prohibition Act, which would empower news publishers and other content providers to defend themselves by mandating transparency for all bots crawling their sites, in introduced in the House by Rep. Laurel Lee (R-FL) and Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC)... Google gets socked by European Union regulators with a $1 billion fine for using the platform’s dominance as a search engine to illegally undercut competition.
