“Death of a Jurist”
Recipient of the STAR BREAKING NEWS REPORT OF THE YEAR award in The Charles E. Green Awards (2016)
Staff Writers
San Antonio Express-News
Judge’s Comments:
As scoops go, it was a world-beater: On a sleepy Saturday, in a remote area of Texas, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had died. The San Antonio Express-News was tipped to the news by a trusted source. From there, the paper employed one of the central tenets of journalism: Get it first, but first make sure you get it right. After urgent but careful checking, the Express-News broke the news on its website, generating more than 5.3 million page views with its exclusive story and setting off a tsunami of citations crediting the paper.
Beyond the breaking piece, the Express-News offered smart sidebars, a slideshow, video, social media posts, push notifications — and exclusive photos of a hearse leaving the luxury hunting resort in West Texas where Scalia had reportedly died. The performance of the team at the Express-News underscored that there’s no substitute for deeply sourced, trusted reporters working with editors smart enough and confident enough not to rush to publication. The Express-News not only broke the story, but also told it smartly in all formats. A winning effort on all levels.
Kristin Gazlay
Director of Top Stories, Associated Press
New York, New York
Kristin Gazlay is Director of Top Stories for The Associated Press, based in New York. She has been a managing editor for the AP, and also served as news editor for the AP in London, assistant managing editor for enterprise in New York and in various capacities in domestic AP bureaus. Among the stories she has overseen are the Sept. 11 attacks, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia, the death of Princess Diana and the historic Northern Ireland peace agreement. She is a graduate of Southern Methodist University.
To see the prize-winning coverage from the San Antonio Express-News, select the link below.
Watch an in-depth interview about this coverage with San Antonio Express-News Managing Editor Jamie Stockwell and Headliners Foundation Chairman Mark Morrison.