The Academic Reviews on Pulitzer’s Gold Are In…

…and Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (July '09, pp. 230-3) calls it "a fine contribution to both scholarship and instruction, a book that can be read for fun, consulted for research, and assigned for class." The "inspirational" book, available in paperback at $24.95, is filled with "case studies of sensitive, painstaking fact gathering, interviewing, document searches, computer analyses, and tenacious [FOIA] filings."

It “could easily serve as a supplement in history or in media and society courses,” says J&MCQ, but “also has much to teach students about journalistic techniques, and …would work well as a supplement for basic and advanced reporting.” Further, author and former Wall Street Journal reporter Roy Harris’ “original interviews with writers, editors, and Pulitzer judges … add human interest, insight, and backstage drama that transform the book from an archive into an up-to-date testimonial to the challenges and rewards of journalism at the peak."

The “compelling and engrossing” focus on a century of stories behind the stories, adds American Journalism (Spring '09, pp. 118-9), means students “will find it extremely valuable as they study the craft of journalism and consider what it means to be a journalist in today's world. “

“Well researched and informative, this detailed historical account of newspaper excellence will be of interest to teachers and students of journalism...offering them a collection of case studies that can easily be used in the classroom“ says H-Net's Jhistory (March 2010.) “Talking about the work of the best of journalism helps students better understand how the news makes sense. Harris draws on his extensive experience as a journalist [and] skillfully illustrates team strategies and newsroom organization, showing how award-winning coverage has been planned, researched, organized, and written across time.... Pulitzer’s Gold is excellent material for teaching reflective journalists, but it is also a good history read, attractive to anyone interested in journalism, newspapers, and the press’s importance in the workings of democracy.”

“There is an unmistakable continuity in these stories, particularly in the focus on the expose,” says Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism magazine. “Many scholars have argued that aside from the Watergate era and the muckraking period, there was little investigative reporting taking place in the 20th century. Harris's research, however, reveals that investigative reporting has been a persistent force in American journalism.... Harris's book is solidly researched, well organized and well written. And for scholars, it will prove valuable for pointing the way to new avenues of inquiry regarding journalistic practice over the last century.”

More viscerally, Harvard's Nieman Reports (Fall '08) describes Pulitzer's Gold as “crammed with the kind of details that are like heroin for hard-core news addicts.” It goes on: “Pulitzer's Gold is a newshound’s ‘story behind the story.’ It's all about the people who made great news and who made the news business great. It is loaded with the Aha! moments that make us, as journalists, glad we passed up the big-bucks MBA track to try to save the world instead.”

“The book could serve as a pep talk to journalists considering getting out of the newspaper business,” says The Newspaper Research Journal (Winter 2009.) “The stories are truly inspirational, and the book's major contribution is the spotlight it shines on how dedication to basic reporting mushroomed into major investigations and changes in society....”

Says Columbia Journalism Review: “With newspapers in apparent, highly publicized decline, this volume serves as a reminder of just how effective superior journalism can be.”

If you are a university journalism professor, there’s a place for Pulitzer’s Gold in your program.

Pulitzer’s Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism, (University of Missouri Press, revised paperback edition, 2010) is written by Roy J. Harris Jr., veteran newspaper and magazine writer and former deputy chief of The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau. Exam copies are available in paperback or in an electronic version. Information at: http://press.umsystem.edu/exam.htm. Or fax request to (573) 884-4498, or mail to:

University of Missouri Press
Attn. Exam/Desk Copy Request
2910 LeMone Blvd.
Columbia, MO 65201

For other matters, Beth Chandler, at ChandlerB@umsystem.edu or (573) 882-9672, is the marketing representative for the book.