Editor called for jury duty: Pulitzer jury duty
By Lauren Adams
J Alumni News staff
Kathleen Rutledge loves a good story.
Last April she had a chance to read more than 1,000 newspaper stories. And all in just two days.
Rutledge, the editor of the Lincoln Journal Star, was chosen to be on a Pulitzer Prize jury this year. Her category was beat reporting. She flew to Columbia University in New York to read and discuss stacks of newspaper stories with six other journalists.
It's a glamorous notion but also a lot of work. "We sat at a temporary table with hard chairs," Rutledge said.
The jury's job is to narrow the entries to three choices and three alternates. These choices are forwarded to the Pulitzer committee, which makes the actual awards.
It is considered an honor to be chosen to serve on a Pulitzer jury, an honor Rutledge said she wasn't expecting. But when a beige envelope from the Pulitzer Prize Committee marked "Personal and Confidential" came to her desk, she knew something was up. It turns out a colleague Rutledge had met at a conference had recommended her.
Rutledge graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1970 with a degree in English. She started working reluctantly at the Lincoln Journal as an obituary clerk after a professor urged her to apply.
"I told him that I wasn't going to take the job because I didn't think it was a very good paper," she said. "He said, 'Yes, you will take that job.'"
Although hired as a clerk, the Neligh native wrote feature articles when she could. Later she worked on the copy desk, then the metro desk and was the Statehouse reporter for 12 years. During that time the Lincoln Star and the Lincoln Journal combined in 1995. Rutledge became the first woman editor of the Lincoln paper in December 2001.
She said her career in journalism has brought a lot of satisfaction and purpose that she wouldn't find in other fields.
"Journalists do their work because they love it and they think they're making a difference," she said. "Not every workplace is like that.
Gilbert Savery worked at the Lincoln Journal from 1941 to 1985. He was there when Rutledge was a clerk and watched her work her way to Statehouse reporter.
"Her talents were there and were simply recognized," Savery said. "She's really just gone through the chairs."
Savery described Rutledge as an "outstanding staff member."
"I just can't say enough about her," he said. "She is pleasant, efficient, very organized, reasonable and thoughtful."
So Savery was delighted to hear that Rutledge had served on a Pulitzer jury.
"She's very perceptive, and she's got a great handle on language," he said. "She would have been able to bring a critical perspective to the committee that would be very helpful."
Rutledge said the jury sat with towering stacks of papers around them. They would begin reading the articles, and if they thought the story could be a contender for the final prize they placed a yellow sticky note with a check on it. If they didn't think the article stood much of a chance for the prize they marked the sticky with an X. A story had to receive at least four X's to be eliminated and placed under the table.
"The pile under the table gets huge, while on top the piles get smaller," Rutledge said.
As she read each article, Rutledge said she was looking for a few general things that would set that article apart from the rest of the stack.
"It's easy to fall under the spell of your beat and your sources," she said. "I was looking for a story I hadn't heard before - a story that made it feel fresh to me."
With so many entries Rutledge said the jury made some easy decisions.
"There was stuff that was easily eliminated," Rutledge said. "A lot of it was fine to put in a daily paper, but it wasn't extraordinary. I gathered it wasn't a year of new heights in journalism."
But among all the just-fine stories, Rutledge said she saw some exceptional work worthy of a Pulitzer.
"A Pulitzer Prize should recognize a story that any reader would remember," she said. "Among all the good work in journalism, there is some that is remarkable."
Rutledge said the purpose of the Pulitzer Prize was to recognize that remarkable work and celebrate it.
"It (a Pulitzer Prize) rewards people who are in touch with what readers want to know. It rewards bravery," she said.
Rutledge said her favorite entry was from Diana Sugg, a health reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Sugg wrote a piece on stillborn babies that Rutledge found very touching.
"I about wanted to cry after reading it," Rutledge said.
Rutledge said Sugg's work was deserving of a Pulitzer because of the way her stories drew the reader in and made things feel fresh.
"Diana Sugg is brave," Rutledge said. "She went into situations involving life and death, in private moments, and brought those emotional moments to her readers."
Rutledge was extremely pleased, she said, when Sugg was awarded the Pulitzer for beat reporting.
"She (Sugg) has a wonderful ability to draw a reader into the story," Rutledge said. "I'm really glad she won."
Rutledge said she enjoyed being on the jury, despite the three long days of tedious reading and long discussions.
"I was exchanging views on journalism with good journalists," she said. "If we'd always been in agreement, it wouldn't have been as fun."
The Pulitzer Prize jury experience reminded Rutledge of the main goal in the craft of journalism, she said.
"As journalists, we tell the stories of our time," she said.
The key to good journalism, she said, was telling those stories in a way that brought significance and meaning to readers. She compared it to the oral tradition of storytelling.
"It's a fundamental fact of human society that you've got to tell the story well to keep the attention of your friends around the campfire."
