Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images
These days, it can feel like the New York Times is so dominant that it has no newspaper to compete with but itself. And now it has a new internal awards ceremony to let it do just that.
Late last year, people across the company were invited to nominate candidates for the inaugural Ochs Awards, honoring the top journalists and journalism of the year. (Masthead positions and desk heads were ineligible.) Awards would be given in 25 categories, from Best Scoop to Writer of the Year to Rising Journalist. There are also categories for beat reporting (in culture and lifestyle, in news) and Editor of the Year (culture and lifestyle, news, audiovisual). The finalists in each category would be selected by “relevant committees of editors,” and the masthead would then choose the winners.
On Monday, the finalists were announced, as staff were invited to join virtually to “raise a glass to the winners” — who will receive a cash prize — on the evening of February 10. “Unfortunately, we can’t accommodate the entire company at the event,” publisher A. G. Sulzberger explained in a previous email. “We’ll have room for finalists and winners, as well as their editors. The event will be livestreamed so that the rest of the newsroom and company can be part of the celebration as well.” Internally, staffers are rolling their eyes. “When it’s no longer possible to chew up our competitors (too diminished, if not outright demolished), of course we choose to sharpen our teeth on each other,” one Times reporter said. “This is really just a delightfully insane thing to do,” said another.
The awards are seemingly an effort to recognize a broader group of people at the paper beyond its multi Pulitzer Prize–winning reporters, media-celebrity podcast hosts, and, increasingly, video stars. “They did not succeed,” one staffer said. “It’s all the usual suspects.”
The Daily, The Ezra Klein Show, and Popcast are finalists for Best Podcast Episode. Maggie Haberman is part of two of the three teams competing for Best Scoop and is also a finalist for The Punch Sulzberger Award for Reporting Without Favor. (“First of all,” one reporter said, “who is reporting with favor? That’s hilarious.”) Lydia Polgreen, M. Gessen, and David French are the Opinion Writer of the Year finalists.
To be fair, not every finalist is a household name, and some categories seem designed explicitly to recognize less visible staffers, like the Behind the Scenes Award, Best Product Contribution, and various subsections of Best Editor. Several staffers said they were glad to see their colleagues get some recognition.
There’s long been angst in the newsroom around who gets to be a star. The Times is filled with talented people, and the corporate view is that you’re never bigger than the institution, which is why many who become stars eventually end up leaving for more expansive opportunities.
But the paper has over the years become more interested in marketing its individuals, as personality-driven content has become the dominant way to attract an audience. The Ochs Awards, a newsroom staffer said, is “a perfect way to read who the masthead has on their gold star list. Another way to make everyone more insecure.”
The Ochs Awards are merely the latest internal recognition prize. There’s also the Publisher’s Award, a quarterly honor recognizing particularly impactful stories and products, which also comes with a cash prize, and the Trifecta, a little Renzo Piano–red plexiglass plaque recognizing reporting that lands on the Times’ three marquee platforms: the homepage, The Morning newsletter, and audio.
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