The irony is too strong in this one. Rob Kuznia, who won a Pulitzer on April 20 along with his colleagues Rebecca Kimitch and Frank Suraci from The Daily Breeze, for their inquiry into vast corruption in a cash-strapped school district, has quit journalism because he could not make both ends meet.
Kuznia is now a publicist with the USC Shoah Foundation because he could not even make rent every month at his journalism job.
On the website of the USC Shoah Foundation, Kuznia said he was expecting to win. "It’s a reminder to me that community journalism matters. A fourth estate is a really important part of our society," Kuznia said. “Without anyone watching, who knows what can go on?”
But as publicist at the USC Shoah Foundation, Kuznia describes the shift in his job as having gone “from batter to pitcher.”
A Slate report said Kuznia was finding it "too difficult to make ends meet at the newspaper while renting in the LA area".
Another reporter, Natalie Caula Hauff, left journalism when she wanted to start a family. She was part of a reporting team on a seven-part series 'Till Death Do Us Part' from The Post and Courier in Charleston that documented the state’s domestic violence epidemic, reported the Columbia Journalism Review.
“I kind of pictured myself at a crime scene pregnant, or with a brand new baby. You want to be so dedicated to your job, but… I don’t think I can picture myself doing that. … At this point in my life it was the right call,” she said.
The New York Times won two prestigious Pulitzer prizes for coverage of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, described by the Pulitzer board as courageous and vivid journalism that engaged the public and held authorities accountable.
The Pulitzer for Public Service, announced at Columbia University, went to Charleston, South Carolina's Post and Courier for its series on domestic violence.
The Pulitzers honour extraordinary work in U.S. journalism, literature, drama and other areas and bring welcome attention and recognition to newspapers and websites. (With inputs from Reuters)
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