inewsource named Pulitzer Prize finalist for fentanyl reporting

SAN DIEGO, May 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- inewsource was named a finalist for the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in the category of Illustrated Storytelling and Commentary for "Fentanyl: A Decade of Death."

The team was led by nationally acclaimed San Diego editorial cartoonist and illustrator Steve Breen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, and included Managing Editor Jamie Self, Assistant Editor of Audience Giovanni Moujaes, and Audience Engagement Producer Iran "JR" Martinez. 

Published in December 2024, the project's innovative journalism – combining data-driven reporting, compelling visuals, community engagement, and interviews with people whose families had suffered the ravages of the drug – exposed San Diego as a gateway of fentanyl trafficking, which in 2023 claimed nearly 75,000 lives nationally despite the seizure of 20,000 pounds of fentanyl by the U.S. Border Patrol along the southern border.

"I'd like to dedicate this honor to the mothers and fathers in San Diego and throughout America who had to bury their sons and daughters because of fentanyl," said Breen. "I spoke with several of these parents at length for this project, and they all want the same thing: to spread awareness about this powerful and deadly drug."

"Two years ago, Steve joined our small nonprofit newsroom as our first full-time illustrator to help make our investigative public service work more accessible and more engaging to more people," said inewsource CEO, editor, and founder Lorie Hearn. "It was a bold move to create a community engagement lab of nimble, creative and visionary professionals who innovate in storytelling. We are grateful to the Pulitzer board for recognizing the quality of this work."  

Founded by newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer upon his death in 1911, the Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually by Columbia University for excellence and achievement in journalism and arts and letters.

About inewsource
Founded in 2009 as one of the nation's first nonprofit newsrooms, inewsource is an award-winning investigative and accountability newsroom working to improve lives in San Diego and Imperial Counties. inewsource.org

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SOURCE inewsource