Paul E. Steiger and Richard Tofel have won 2021 W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Awards for creating a new model of nonprofit journalism at ProPublica.

Steiger founded ProPublica in 2007-2008 as legacy news organizations, facing shrinking profit margins, were slashing staff and spending, including on investigative reporting. His first hire was Tofel, with whom he had worked at the Wall Street Journal.  Steiger, with Tofel at his side, insisted that ProPublica would pursue investigative reporting as a “public good” that would shine a spotlight on abusive authority and defend the public’s interest.

In 2010, ProPublica became the first online news organization to win a Pulitzer Prize, for investigative reporting on the deaths at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina.  It would go on to win journalism’s highest honors, including five more Pulitzer Prizes, five Peabody Awards, and four Emmy Awards.

But ProPublica did not hog the glory. Its website includes a section called “Steal Our Stories.”  It also developed a new partnership model that brought news organizations together to report, edit and distribute investigative reporting, the most expensive part of most news organizations’ budgets. It has had more than 235 publishing partners.

National Press Foundation judges cited Steiger’s role as the creative pioneer of ProPublica’s audacious new journalism model, and Tofel’s role as the indispensable implementer who raised millions more dollars and steered the organization from start-up to success.

The W.M. Kiplinger Distinguished Contributions to Journalism Award was created in 1983 to “honor persons who have, through their vision and leadership, strengthened American journalism and furthered the efforts to establish the highest quality in American journalism.”  Last year’s winner was columnist George Will.  Previous winners are here.

Steiger and Tofel accepted the award at the National Press Foundation’s annual dinner, in Washington D.C. on May 4, 2022.