Sometimes the Work Gets Noticed

I try to avoid using this channel for anything other than providing readers with substantive reporting. But in this case, it felt worth posting a brief announcement and thank you note to our team.

This week, the Columbia Journalism School honored The Outlaw Ocean Project with the DuPont Award, which some have called the equivalent of the Pulitzer for broadcast media. NPR’s Steve Inskeep was the MC and he played a great video about the reporting. Watch here:

A series that we produced called “China: The Superpower of Seafood" won the award. It comes on the heels of a half dozen other major plaudits for the series that we co-published originally with the New Yorker, but subsequently with over 241 other outlets in 53 languages and 24 countries.

The day after the award ceremony, Jelani Cobb, Dean of Columbia University’s Journalism School, appeared on NPR to discuss the state of broadcast media in the US today. The Outlaw Ocean Project was among the three DuPont winners that he chose to discuss on the show. You can listen to what he said here:

For a tiny news organization like ours, this award is existentially important. Aside from being a morale boost to the team that spent over 4 years to produce this series, such recognition helps show editors at venues globally that the reporting we do is worthy of their trust, which helps us grow the list of our publishing partners.

So, thanks to Columbia University, thanks to our subscribers and donors, and most of all, thanks to the Outlaw Ocean team for your rigor and endurance.