Las Vegas Weekly

April 20, 2009 · 5:10 PM

Pulitzer Prize goes to Las Vegas Sun

By Sarah Feldberg

Reporter Emily Richmond, left, embraces reporter Alexandra Berzon as she learns of the Las Vegas Sun's win of the Pulitzer Prize for public service for exposing a high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip, at the Las Vegas Sun offices in Henderson, Nevada on Monday, April 20, 2009.

Photo: Tiffany Brown

The sound of applause went up along with small glasses of Champagne in the Las Vegas Sun newsroom this afternoon as reporters, editors and staff toasted the paper’s first Pulitzer Prize, awarded for public service for revealing “the high death rate among construction workers on the Las Vegas Strip.”

Only the second Nevada newspaper to win the prestigious journalism award, the Sun’s Alexandra Berzon was noted on the Pulitzer Web site for her “courageous reporting,” which led to “changes in policy and improved safety conditions.”

With cameras trained on the slightly overwhelmed 29-year-old reporter and her editors, Managing Editor Michael Kelley and Deputy Managing Editor Drex Heikes spoke to the newsroom about the tenacious reporting that went into developing more than 40 stories and coordinated multimedia over the span of 12 months.

More than simply singing the praises of an excellent piece of journalism, however, Kelley, Heikes and Berzon spoke about working for a publication that continues to prize probing reporting and in-depth investigation while newspapers around the country suffer layoffs, shrinking revenue and even closings.

As Kelley began his brief address, he commented on a question that every newspaper editor asks himself from time to time.

“How’s newsroom morale today?” he asked smiling. A round of cheers answered, as if he even needed to ask.

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