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It is an achievement that will attach to the winners for the remainder of their lives and, often, beyond.īased on numbers alone, Steiger is undoubtedly a top five luminary when measured against other modern-day newsroom chieftains. Taking into account all those differences, one scorecard that nonetheless is often used to recognize the achievements of executive editors, editors-in-chief, and managing editors at daily newspapers is how many Pulitzer Prizes their news organization notched under their direction.įor any journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize is a career-altering achievement, much like a performer who wins an Academy Award or a quarterback who wins the Super Bowl. While general and local news can be an awards magnet - city hall, crime, culture, schools, and the like - the Journal’s brief is national and international in scope.įurther stretching comparisons between the Journal and other prominent newspapers is the fact that until September 2005, less than two years before the end of Steiger’s tenure at the paper, the business “daily” was a weekday-only enterprise.Īnd, of course, to this day, the Journal isn’t a bona fide contender for journalism honors that recognize achievements in categories including editorial cartooning, breaking news photography, or feature photography.

That, alone, reduces the number of articles and staff members dedicated to non-financial news and features. Steiger is reluctant to compare his record to that of others who are widely acknowledged to own a place in the pantheon of great 20th and 21st-century newspaper editors.Īny such comparison is an imprecise undertaking because, in several respects, The Wall Street Journal isn’t like other respected newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Philadelphia Inquirer.įor starters, the Journal’s principal focus - even after it began a broad diversification of coverage under managing editor Norman Pearlstine in the 1980s - was and remains to deliver the paper’s subscribers a more concentrated dose of business and financial news than does any major metropolitan daily. Nevertheless, one of the critical attributes of successful journalists is competitiveness, and that demands a healthy amount of measuring oneself against one’s journalism peers and rivals. Later that year, he launched ProPublica, serving as its editor-in-chief, CEO, and president through 2012.ĭuring his 21 years at the helm of the two newsrooms, members of Steiger’s staff received a combined total of 18 Pulitzer Prizes - 16 at the Journal ¹ and two at ProPublica - and were finalists an additional 10 times.Īs a child, Steiger’s mother, Mary Walsh Steiger, a schoolteacher, counseled her son - a polio survivor - that “comparisons are odious.” She told him he shouldn’t weigh his attributes against the other boys, either academically or on the athletic playing fields.

Steiger served as managing editor of The Wall Street Journal from 1991 until May 2007. Adapted from “Steiger: A Journalist in the Public Interest” (Coming 2023) Steiger, who oversaw a combined 18 successful award entries as the head of two different news organizations, one of which he founded. Ahead of the announcement of the 106th Class of Pulitzer Prize winners, author Dean Rotbart examines the prize record of Paul E.