Putting the “Star” in Post-Star

How an aspiring radio DJ won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing

Story by Adam Patterson
Photos courtesy of Mark Mahoney and Derek Pruitt, Glens Falls Post-Star

As of February 9, 2011, in the upstate New York house of Poughkeepsie native Mark Mahoney, there rests a New York Jets bag (his favorite team). The bag, which traveled to Poughkeepsie and back a few weeks prior, remains lost somewhere in Mahoney’s house until the snow fades and it’s safe for Mahoney to take the bag to its public display case.

Carefully wrapped in the bag is a certificate, and close by is its lady-in-waiting—a small, turquoise-colored box. Inside the box is a crystal the size of a baseball that bears Mahoney’s name, which is an accolade few journalists ever achieve—a Pulitzer Prize.

Rewinding to the early 1980s, Mahoney, fresh from Highland High School and attending Dutchess Community College (DCC) in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., found himself going through school wanting to be on the radio. He remembers reading his college’s paper, The Chronicle, and putting it down without a second thought. Writing had yet to permeate his imagination. He wanted his spoken voice to be heard by the masses.

However, when Mahoney decided to try his hand at news writing, his transition was facilitated by his radio roots. “I got into news because I wanted more airtime,” Mahoney says. “I  always liked news and politics and all that stuff anyway, so I just started doing that.”

After graduating from DCC with an associate of science degree in communications and media arts, he attended Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y. He graduated after two years, finishing with a bachelor of science in communication management. Throughout his college career, he was involved with college media, but never wandered into the print medium.

“I really wanted to do much more than that.”

His radio career continued after graduating from Ithaca. He took his talents back home to Poughkeepsie where he worked for WEOK and WPDH, the Hudson Valley’s home for rock n’ roll, both mere miles from his alma mater.

During his tenure of working at radio stations, he began to feel like something was amiss with his career choice.  “The way I got into newspapers is when I really got tired of not being able to tell the full story,” Mahoney says. “When you’re doing radio clips ... you try to summarize, and you really don’t have any time at all.  I really wanted to do much more than that.”

With no newspaper experience, he found himself as a general assignment reporter at the Glens Falls Post-Star, hoping to tell the kind of deep and involved stories he could not get in short bursts over the radio. Initially, it seemed like a radio background without any print media experience would hinder his chances of being hired by a newspaper; in fact, he didn’t have a single clip when he got his job. Luckily for Mahoney, it worked out in the exact opposite way.

“The reason why [I was hired] is because they were tired of stale writing,” Mahoney says. “They wanted someone who could write colorfully, and they figured someone from radio could do that. They kind of liked my radio stuff and hired me without ever having a newspaper job in my life.”

Finding the opportunity to tell in-depth stories came with a price, and he struggled for several months to make the transition from radio to print. Writing eventually became easier, and it was an assignment given to him on a seemingly typical Sunday that would change his life.

“The managing editor needed somebody to write an editorial, and I figured I’d give it a shot. I wrote one ... and I really enjoyed it,” Mahoney says. Unlike his transition from radio to newspaper, his segue from general assignment to editorial writing went smoothly.  For Mahoney, editorial writing was a blend of journalistic skill and personal opinion. “You could still use your colorful language, your reporting,  and your fact checking,” Mahoney says.

Mahoney even sent in some stories for the Pulitzer on a whim. He received no nomination and kept at his job, thinking nothing of it.

There aren’t any restrictions when applying for the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. Any small-town newspaper can go toe-to-toe with any large city paper like the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, or the Gray Lady herself—The New York Times. However, even though anyone can submit, the specter of a large metro paper’s competition generally keeps the submission numbers low.

“I think that people are realistic,” says Mark Tingley, editor at the Post-Star. “I think the Pulitzer is held in high enough esteem [that] you don’t want embarrass yourself by entering something that isn’t good enough,” he explains. “You know you’re going up against the New York Times ... [and] every great metro newspaper out there, people with far more resources than what we have.”

“You’re only limited by your vision.”

Mahoney, aware of his competition and having little hope of winning, was eventually persuaded to submit for the prize a second time. Tingley, who had been a judge for another section of the prize the year before, had heard discussions about editorial pieces while in proximity to the judges. Feeling that one of his own writers could win, he passed his confidence on.

“I really felt that the work he was doing was good enough,” Tingley says. “You don’t see everybody else’s writing, but on our level, he was doing some extraordinary work.”

Mahoney chose his requisite ten editorials for submission, which was easy due to the high number of editorial pieces he had accumulated. He sent in his work and continued to do his job, forgetting about his second submission much like the first.

Mahoney says that apparently everyone in the newspaper business except him knew of “Pulitzer Day,” the day when the winners are announced. Mahoney also didn’t know that Tingley had a suspicion he would be in the running to win. While judging for the Pulitzer that year, Tingley heard whispers of names suspected of being in the top three. Among the three was one of his very own writers. He told no one except his wife, and had no way of knowing for certain whether Mahoney had made the top three, let alone won. It was all hearsay.

However, there was one person at Mahoney’s paper  that day who was keenly aware of “Pulitzer Day” and kept his distance in telling Mahoney or his publisher. During the day, minutes before the announcement, publisher Rick Emanuel sat at his desk constantly refreshing his computer screen on the Pulitzer’s website until suddenly one of his writers names showed up as a winner for editorial writing. Emanuel told no one.

Instead, he picked up his phone and called a meeting for the entire staff. Mahoney, not in the office at the time, received the call on his cell phone and returned as ordered. Something was amiss, but he was not too alarmed. “He had never called me on my cell phone before,” Mahoney says.

“I think I freaked him a little bit,” Emanuel says, “with him thinking it was obviously something bad, but he said ‘I’ll be right in.’”

When the staff gathered for the meeting, no one but Emanuel knew what was happening. Knowing that Tingley wanted to be involved if Mahoney won the Putlizer, Emanuel put Tingley on speaker phone and let him have the honor of making the announcement. Minutes before that, Mahoney sat in the meeting having completely forgotten about his submission and was oblivious to the true nature of the meeting. Tingley made the announcement.

“We have some news,” Tingley said. “I’m like, ‘What?’” Mahoney recalls. Then it was Emanuel’s turn. Addressing Tingley on speaker phone, he said, “Tell ‘em.” Mahoney, and everyone else, was still confused. “Tell me what?” he asked. “You won it,” said Tingley to Mahoney. “You won the Pulitzer.”

“I was as stunned as you could be,” Mahoney says. He then went straight to the parking lot and made his obligatory cell phones calls to his kids, his girlfriend, and his mother. He recalled the irony of  jokingly putting on his Facebook page that his goal was to win a Pulitzer. “You never really think it’s going to happen,” Mahoney says.

“You won it,” said Tingley to Mahoney. “You won the Pulitzer.”

After the announcement of his win, a flurry of interviews and his celebrations followed. Glens Falls even hosted a Mark Mahoney Day, and Mahoney’s father got a new bumper sticker that says, “My son won the Pulitzer.”

Mahoney took his award back to Dutchess Community College a few weeks ago. He addressed the students, told them he loved getting an education at DCC, and stressed that just because they’re at a community college doesn’t mean they can’t achieve their goals. “You’re only limited by your vision,” Mahoney says.

He went down to Columbia University to get his award and was handed a certificate that resembles a high school diploma. He also got a certain turquoise colored box with a small crystal object bearing his achievement. Seeing the individual with those two things at the Pulitzer reception was “how you know who won,” Mahoney says.

Because that box and certificate are lost somewhere in Mahoney’s house, you’d never know he won. “I’m not trying to win awards,” Mahoney says, “I’m just trying to do my job. I’m just trying to educate people, inform them, inspire them, and get them to take action.”

What effect will Mark Mahoney's Pulitzer have on smaller local newspapers?

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