WASHINGTON — States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, is proud to announce that Brian Lyman, Alabama Reflector Editor-in-Chief was named a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for Commentary.

Lyman’s 24 years chasing hard news inform what the Pulitzer Board called “brave, clear and pointed columns that challenge ever-more-repressive state policies flouting democratic norms and targeting vulnerable populations, written with the command and authority of a veteran political observer.”

Winners were announced Monday. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian writer imprisoned for standing against the war on Ukraine, won with columns published by The Washington Post.

Lyman uses commentary to bring the lens of history to present-day issues unfolding in Alabama. “There are patterns in this state that just repeat over and over again,” he said in an interview. “You can change the characters. You can change the issues. You can change the settings.” But a key theme, he said, is that Alabama government tends to serve the powerful over the vulnerable.

“We are proud and honored that the Pulitzer Prize Board recognizes Brian’s unflinching and insightful analysis of this pivotal movement in our history as it is playing out in Alabama,” said Chris Fitzsimon, States Newsroom president and publisher. “It’s why States Newsroom was founded, to tell the stories of people affected by the decisions made in Montgomery and other statehouses across the country.”

In 2023, Pew Research Center cited States Newsroom and other nonprofit initiatives as key to filling the void in statehouse coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to Pew, the overall percentage of reporters working for nonprofit newsrooms in the statehouse press corps has more than tripled since 2014 and now makes up the largest portion of statehouse reporters in 10 states and the second largest in 17 states.

About States Newsroom
States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit news organization. We shine a light on policy and politics in state capitals around the nation and we provide that coverage for free, no pop-ups, paywalls or ads. In an era of rampant disinformation and news deserts, we provide nonpartisan coverage of the state issues that most affect people’s daily lives.

We run — or partner with — news outlets in all 50 state capitals.

We fully fund newsrooms in 39 states, each with its own website. They are:

Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com

Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com

Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com

Arizona Mirror – azmirror.com

Colorado Newsline – coloradonewsline.com

Florida Phoenix – floridaphoenix.com

Georgia Recorder – georgiarecorder.com

Idaho Capital Sun – idahocapitalsun.com

Indiana Capital Chronicle – indianacapitalchronicle.com

Iowa Capital Dispatch – iowacapitaldispatch.com

Kansas Reflector – kansasreflector.com

Kentucky Lantern – kentuckylantern.com

Louisiana Illuminator – lailluminator.com

Maine Morning Star – mainemorningstar.com

Maryland Matters – marylandmatters.org

Michigan Advance – michiganadvance.com

Minnesota Reformer – minnesotareformer.com

Missouri Independent – missouriindependent.com

Daily Montanan – dailymontanan.com

Nebraska Examiner – nebraskaexaminer.com

Nevada Current – nevadacurrent.com

New Hampshire Bulletin – newhampshirebulletin.com

New Jersey Monitor – newjerseymonitor.com

Source New Mexico – sourcenm.com

NC Newsline – ncnewsline.com

North Dakota Monitor – northdakotamonitor.com

Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com

Oklahoma Voice – oklahomavoice.com

Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com

Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com

Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com

South Carolina Daily Gazette – scdailygazette.com

South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com

Stateline – stateline.org

Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com

Utah News Dispatch – utahnewsdispatch.com

Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com

Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com

West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com

Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com

States Newsroom also has content-sharing agreements with 11 leading nonprofit newsrooms: CalMatters (California), Connecticut Mirror, Spotlight Delaware, Honolulu Civil Beat, Capitol News Illinois, CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont), and WyoFile (Wyoming).rs and philanthropists and committed to supporting fact-based, non-partisan news to the public at no cost and ad-free.

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