Message From Jim O"Shea - Editor LAT

Colleagues,

Today's award of the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting to Ken Weiss, Usha McFarling, Rick Loomis and the Los Angeles Times for the "Altered Oceans" series is a fitting recognition of the commitment of this newspaper to great journalism and public service. Winning a Pulitzer Prize is the gold standard of journalism, and the conception and execution of "Altered Oceans" lived up to the Los Angeles Times' heritage of excellence. This is the 38th Pulitzer won by the staff. I congratulate Ken, Usha and Rick for their outstanding work on a series that showed how industrial society has polluted the oceans and threatened sea life and human health.

It's important to note that "Altered Oceans" was conceived and executed as a multi-media experience that engaged readers and users through print, still photography, video, graphics and an online message board. We are proud of their series and their accomplishment. "Altered Oceans" represents the kind of high quality journalism that readers in Southern California can only get from the Los Angeles Times.

I also want to congratulate the many other staffers who worked on the series, including John Vande Wege and Stephanie Ferrell from the latimes.com staff and Joel Sappell, who helped orchestrate the "Altered Oceans" package. The Pulitzer panels also recognized numerous other Times staffers as finalists for journalism's most prestigious award. Becoming a finalist
is an accomplishment on its own, and I would like to recognize the phenomenal work of our other finalists. Borzou Daragahi, Megan Stack, Louise Roug and Solomon Moore were finalists in foreign reporting for Baghdad reporting; Christopher Knight, our art critic and Mark Swed, the
classical music critic, were also finalists in criticism. Christopher Goffard, who recently joined the Orange County bureau, also was a finalist in feature writing for the work he did at the St. Petersburg Times.

I congratulate all of the finalists, too.

No staff can produce Pulitzer quality work without the dedication and commitment of many editors, designers and others who help put the paper out every day. You should all feel proud of this newspaper on this great day. You all make me proud to be your editor, and I thank you for all of your great work.

Jim