Politico Editors Win U.S. Editor of the Year Award

John Harris, who sits on the GMF Board of Trustees, and Jim VandeHei, founding editors of POLITICO, have been awarded the U.S. National Press Foundation’s coveted Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award.

Politico COO Kim Kingsley and Mike Allen email the staff: “John and Jim [have been] named winners of the National Press Foundation’s coveted Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year Award. This prize is a tribute to the guys’ prescience and guts in creating this insurgent enterprise nine years ago, when many people scoffed as they left prestigious jobs at Bradlee’s newspaper to try something risky and innovative. And it’s a huge compliment to YOU and the 459 other POLITICOs around the country and across Europe who work so deftly and diligently to make this one of the world’s most respected and consequential news organizations – and certainly among the most copied.

“John and Jim each said the same thing when they heard about the award: ‘But we don’t edit!’ It’s true that they no longer ‘strap the boots on’ -- as they used to say in the early days, when they were diving in to rescue an especially raw piece of copy. But we’ll always have them to thank for creating this great place, and preserving and promoting what they so memorably call ‘journalism we can be proud of.’ Their passion, their values, their sensibilities -- even their lingo -- will always be our DNA.

“The National Press Foundation judges wrote: ‘John and Jim saw an opening before others did, then charged through it despite the risks and naysayers. They have adapted traditional political reporting for the digital age. Now they are pursuing the same brand of original reporting in politics and government at the state level, expanding coverage in state capitols at a time regional papers are curtailing it. They have brought energy, imagination and an entrepreneurial spirit to reshaping journalism as it must be practiced in the future.’

“Those of us who were here at launch well remember some of the naysaying the NPF judges referred to. The truth is that John and Jim, and those of us who signed up with them, knew there was a chance the naysayers were right -- but even if so, we were going to have fun trying. As it turned out, with the backing of Robert Allbritton, this publication reignited journalism even as so many news organizations were shriveling.”