The Baltimore Banner was awarded the Pulitzer Prize on Monday for groundbreaking local journalism that exposed Baltimore as the deadliest large city in the nation for drug overdoses, calling attention to a crisis that has unfolded as government officials paid little attention to the problem and treatment centers were poorly regulated.

The three Banner journalists spearheading the project – reporter Alissa Zhu, photojournalist Jessica Gallagher, and data specialist Nick Thieme — worked for nearly two years. They pieced together chilling patterns from reams of previously shielded records, and hit the streets to tell the stories of those addicted to opioids and those who’ve lost family and friends. The project was done in collaboration with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

“Less than three years after The Banner’s launch, our team is extraordinarily honored to accept the organization’s first Pulitzer Prize,” Zhu said. “We are even more honored to see the information we brought to light is now helping shape new conversations, policies and programs to tackle overdoses in our city and state. There’s so much work ahead to be done.”

A deep look at drug overdoses was among the most ambitious early ideas at The Banner as editors recognized that a crisis killing thousands of people in the city annually was going underreported — and overlooked.

Alissa Zhu, Jessica Gallagher and Nick Thieme spent about two years investigating Baltimore’s overdose crisis in partnership with The New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship.

Kimi Yoshino, The Banner’s editor-in-chief, said the decision to investigate Baltimore’s overdose crisis forced a costly and unexpected legal fight over public records, but one that was necessary to understand the scope of the problem.

The Banner sued the Maryland Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in 2022 after the agency refused to provide complete autopsy reports. A judge sided with The Banner in January 2024, ordering the state to turn over the public records, which became the foundation for the overdose series.

Read More

Baltimore’s overdose crisis: Read The Banner’s coverage

May 5, 2025

“Our reporting has brought much-needed attention to this deadly problem and forced it back onto the city and state’s priority list. There’s no doubt we will help save lives,” Yoshino said. “It’s also shown how important it is to have strong local journalism that holds our leaders accountable.”

The trio’s reporting found that Baltimore’s overdose crisis was triggered by fentanyl and made worse by exploitative practices at government-funded addiction treatment providers — as well as by city leaders who failed to respond forcefully. They also found that a generation of older Black men was the hardest hit both in Baltimore and across the country, left behind by changing economic forces.

The prize committee called their work “a compassionate investigative series that captured the breathtaking dimensions of Baltimore’s fentanyl crisis and its disproportionate impact on older Black men.”

Shortly after the stories by Zhu, Gallagher, Thieme and other Banner reporters, city leaders began seriously discussing the opioid crisis and are starting to make progress. A troubled treatment center stopped treating patients after being ordered to cease and desist following Banner reporting.

The first-of-its-kind dataset used by Banner reporters was shared with nine other newsrooms to help kick-start a national conversation about how the opioid epidemic has taken a massive toll on an overlooked generation of Black men.

The Banner is also working to make the autopsy data available to academic researchers.

The award is a milestone achievement for the nonprofit startup, which launched in June 2022 and is now the largest newsroom in the state, with 85 journalists and paid subscribers in every Maryland county.

And while other news organizations across the country are shrinking, The Banner is on track to reach financial sustainability, said Banner CEO Bob Cohn.

The Banner has more than 63,000 digital subscribers, and revenue grew 40% in 2024 over the previous year, Cohn said.

“Our job is to inform and strengthen communities in Maryland by providing trusted and independent local news,” said Cohn. “The quality of the journalism has proved to be rocket fuel to the business, helping our commercial teams drive subscriptions, advertising, and philanthropic contributions.”

Amanda Vlakos was found dead of an overdose in September of 2024 while enrolled in PHA Healthcare, a recovery program that offered free housing. Her mother, Angela, prepares a memory board ahead of her memorial last year.

The Pulitzer Prize is also the first for the New York Times Local Investigations Fellowship, a program that began in 2023 with Zhu in its inaugural class.

Dean Baquet, executive editor for the fellowship, said The Banner was the first newsroom he visited after starting the program, and called it an “inspiring place.”

 “It was a glimpse into the possibilities of the next generation of journalism. And this story was the perfect investigation. It laid out a crisis, and explained its deep origins,” Baquet said.

Big Local News, a non-profit based at Stanford University that collaborates with journalists on data projects, also contributed to the stories.

The award caps a strong run of national recognition for The Banner.

Recently, The Banner won a prestigious George Polk Award for the same overdose series.

The newsroom’s work covering the Key Bridge collapse and its fallout, and its incisive investigation into abuse in a local megachurch with global reach, have also been recognized this last year.

Stewart Bainum Jr., founder of The Baltimore Banner, said the national awards — and especially the Pulitzer — are “a powerful affirmation of The Banner’s commitment to serve the Baltimore and Maryland community.”

The opioid reporting team’s work has made a difference in people’s lives, Bainum said, and the national recognition for their work gives the organization “a hell of a boost.”

“I think this helps us advance our goal of building a sustainable business model at scale, and one that can be replicated in communities across the country,” he said.