N&O, Charlotte Observer named Pulitzer Prize finalists for Helene coverage
The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize Monday, a top journalism honor given for their joint coverage of Hurricane Helene’s destruction across Western North Carolina.
The winners were announced from Columbia University in New York, with The N&O and The Charlotte Observer recognized in the breaking news category.
The Pulitzer for breaking news went to The Washington Post for its coverage of the July attempt to assassinate then-presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Along with the North Carolina newspapers, the Associated Press was also named as a Pulitzer finalist for breaking news, awarded for its work on the Trump shooting.
Coverage of Hurricane Helene
Hurricane Helene struck the mountain counties of Western North Carolina in late September, killing more than 100 people and damaging more than 70,000 homes.
Journalists with the Raleigh and Charlotte newspapers worked in areas suffering without power, water, cellular service or passable roads, providing daily stories, photographs and video that combated widespread misinformation about the storm.
“The toll that Helene took on Western North Carolina was unprecedented, and The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer worked together closer than ever to document it,” said Thad Ogburn, managing editor of The News & Observer. “We told the personal stories of lives lost, we fact-checked the many falsehoods and we showed readers images of devastation that were hard to fathom.”
In the first week, the newspapers published more than 100 articles and scores of photos and videos seen by millions of people.
Journalists from both publications often filed their stories and images using cellphones, often parked in their cars outside storm-stricken town hall buildings with a Starlink connection. N&O photojournalist Travis Long covered the storm’s aftermath for 16 days without a break, staying in a house without power for nine of them.
“At the core of our mission as journalists is being there for our communities in moments of great crisis,” said Rana Cash, executive editor of The Charlotte Observer. “Our North Carolina neighbors severely impacted by Helene were vulnerable in every way imaginable. It was our responsibility and privilege to provide coverage that helped them endure this great tragedy.
“The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer joined our resources, journalistic muscle and compassion to tell stories with urgency and illuminate the great needs of the region,” she continued. “This is a testament to our collective determination to serve.”
The Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is widely considered the highest honor in U.S. journalism, awarded for exceptional reporting, commentary and storytelling.
The N&O last won the Pulitzer in 1996 for its public service reporting on the Boss Hog series that examined the consequences of the fast-growing pork industry in Eastern North Carolina.
The Charlotte Observer won its last Pulitzer in 2014 when Keven Siers was honored for editorial cartooning.
Other Pulitzer wins for Raleigh are its 2000 finalist award for work on Hurricane Floyd; its prize for criticism in 1989, which went to Michael Skube; and former editor Claude Sitton’s 1983 Pulitzer for commentary.
Charlotte’s other Pulitzers include being a finalist in 2013 for an investigation into nonprofit hospitals; its 2008 finalist honors in the public service category for coverage of the regional mortgage and housing crisis; being named a finalist in 1995 for an examination into Charlotte’s declining inner city; its 1988 public service Pulitzer for reporting on the PTL television industry and the misuse of funds; and its 1981 public service award for reporting on “brown lung” in textile mills.
Other area winners
Chuck Stone, a longtime journalism professor at UNC-Chapel Hill who died in 2014, also received a special citation from the Pulitzer Prize committee “for his groundbreaking work as a journalist covering the Civil Rights Movement, his pioneering role as the first Black columnist at the Philadelphia Daily News–later syndicated to nearly 100 publications–and for co-founding the National Association of Black Journalists 50 years ago.”
Kathleen DuVal, a history professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, won a Pulitzer Prize in the History category of Letters and Drama for her book “Native Nations: A Millennium in North America.” The category awards “a distinguished and appropriately documented book on the history of the United States.”
The Pulitzer committee said, “Native Nations” gives “a panoramic portrait of Native American nations and communities over a thousand years, a vivid and accessible account of their endurance, ingenuity and achievement in the face of conflict and dispossession.”
See N&O, Charlotte Observer’s nominated work
https://pulitzer.org/finalists/22689
This story was originally published May 5, 2025 at 4:04 PM with the headline "N&O, Charlotte Observer named Pulitzer Prize finalists for Helene coverage."