Paul E. Steiger is Executive Chairman of ProPublica's board of directors. Steiger was the founding editor-in-chief, CEO and president of ProPublica from 2008 through 2012. As executive chairman, Steiger remains actively involved in strategic issues, development, representing ProPublica in public venues, and consulting with management on business and editorial issues as needed and on a part-time basis.
Previously, Steiger served as the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal from 1991 to 2007. During his tenure, members of the Journal’s newsroom staff were awarded 16 Pulitzer Prizes. In addition, a ProPublica reporter received a Pulitzer Prize in May 2010.
Steiger is the chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based nonprofit that advocates for press freedom around the globe, and a member of the steering committee of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, based in Arlington, Va., which provides free legal assistance to journalists. From 1999 to 2007, he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, serving as its chairman in his final year. He is a trustee of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, based in Miami, that funds efforts to enhance journalism and the functioning of American communities.
Awards include the Columbia Journalism Award, the University of Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service in Journalism, the Goldsmith Career Award for Excellence in Journalism from Harvard University’s Joan Shorenstein Center, the Gerald Loeb Award for lifetime achievement from the John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, the Dean’s Medal for Distinguished Leadership from Brandeis University, the Fourth Estate Award from the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., the National Press Foundation’s George Beveridge Editor of the Year Award, the Decade of Excellence Award from the World Leadership Forum in London, and the American Society of News Editors Leadership Award.
Steiger worked for 15 years as a reporter, the Washington economics correspondent, and the business editor for the Los Angeles Times, and for 26 years as a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal. He received a bachelor’s degree in economics from Yale University in 1964.
Articles
Nov. 6, 2012, 5:14 p.m.
Join ProPublica’s campaign to shine a light on the hidden aspects of campaign finance by chronicling ad spending in Las Vegas, one of the nation’s most heavily blanketed cities.
Dec. 27, 2011, 5:47 a.m.
This has been a year of impact for ProPublica’s journalism. We’re making a difference. So as 2011 comes to a close, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to help ProPublica continue this important work.
Dec. 3, 2011, 11 p.m.
Several steps could solve the racial disparity in presidential pardons that our joint project with The Washington Post has exposed—starting with a requirement that any member of Congress who writes on behalf of a pardon applicant disclose campaign donations.
April 18, 2011, 2:09 p.m.
ProPublica reporters Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for their stories on how some Wall Street bankers, seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of their clients and sometimes even their own firms, at first delayed but then worsened the financial crisis. We at ProPublica are delighted by this award, and deeply honored.
April 4, 2011, 1:50 p.m.
ProPublica and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune began examining in May 2010 what was—or wasn’t—being done to help people whose homes had been built with contaminated drywall. The problematic drywall, much of it imported from China, emitted foul odors and frequently caused mysterious failures of new appliances and electronics. Worse yet, some residents complained of serious respiratory problems, bloody noses, and migraines.
Dec. 29, 2010, 8:40 a.m.
Before the year comes to an end, please consider making a tax-deductible donation to ProPublica. Your support will help continue our critically important work of publishing investigative journalism in the public interest—and revealing stories that otherwise wouldn’t be told.
Dec. 3, 2010, 11:49 a.m.
I’m writing, as the end of the year approaches, to ask you to consider making a gift to ProPublica. Your support will help us continue our critically important work of publishing investigative journalism in the public interest—and with an eye toward spurring change.
Nov. 9, 2010, 7:17 a.m.
After two years of delays, the government recently fulfilled ProPublica’s request for data that track whether death, hospitalization and infection rates at dialysis clinics are better or worse than expected.
May 25, 2010, 9:56 a.m.
After two years online, ProPublica is looking for feedback on its journalism. Readers can answer a survey to tell us what we should be doing better.
April 20, 2010, 10:46 a.m.
Responding to reporting by ProPublica, the Chicago hedge fund Magnetar sends a letter to investors criticizing the news coverage. It does not deny that it bet against CDOs that it bought, but emphasizes that its practices were not illegal.
April 12, 2010, 5:21 p.m.
Sheri's Fink's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting from New Orleans is a powerful example of ProPublica's mission: to shine light on possible abuses of power or failures to uphold the public interest, so that the public can learn from and remedy them.
Dec. 24, 2009, 12:13 p.m.
An Investor’s Business Daily editorial repeats some canards about ProPublica’s coverage of the environmental risks of hydraulic fracturing.
