Let’s say you’re an illustrious newspaper, and your rival has just won a landslide of Pulitzers (six, to be exact, the second most any newspaper has won in a year—ever). Let’s say you’ve also had some (but more modest) Pulitzer success: you’ve rung in at a more-than-respectable two. And let’s say you publish a story on your Web site announcing all the Pulitzer wins and—appropriately, graciously—leading with a nod to your rival’s newsworthy success.
So. If you’re that illustrious newspaper, what art do you choose to accompany your article?
If you’re The New York Times, you place your headline about your rival’s wins—“Washington Post Wins Six Pulitzers”—directly above a photo of…your own staff, in your own newsroom, celebrating your own two prizes.
Classy.
Megan Garber is an assistant editor at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. She was formerly a CJR staff writer.