In an extraordinary year for news made even more challenging by an economic recession, Cox journalists rose to the occasion. Often they relied on each other. Pooled and shared resources afforded first-rate international coverage and groundbreaking enterprise reporting at home.

When two women with Baylor University ties were freed by their Taliban captors Cox newspapermen and women from Waco to Washington to Kabul swung into action. At home, journalists from Austin, Dayton and our Washington Bureau disclosed flaws in the shaky and dangerous network of gas pipelines that crisscross the US. Every Cox newspaper played its usual watchdog role for hometown readers.

In short, everything happened in 2001, it seemed, yet nothing fundamental changed about the way our reporters, editors, photographers and artists did their jobs. They saw to it that Cox newspapers did what they’ve been doing for 103 years. They served their communities and readers well.

The Best of Cox competition recognizes this service. Yet, as our panel of judges discovered, there weren’t enough awards to cover all the true winners who staff our newspapers. Each year the standard of excellence rises not because the judges raise it, but because the competitors push the bar higher with the quality of their work. These same competitive journalists, however, have honed a spirit of cooperation among themselves that provides a jet-like propulsion to the work of all of our newspapers. This unique blend of strong individuals who have the capacity to work together distinguishes Cox Newspapers and has become a cause of great pride.

Personifying the strong-yet-collegial Cox journalist are the winners of this year’s Arnold Rosenfeld Editor of the Year Award, Washington Bureau Chief Andy Alexander and Foreign Editor Chuck Holmes. Andy and Chuck distinguished themselves long ago as journalists. It is their talent as leaders that we recognized this year. Never have our newspapers made better use of copy generated by our Washington Bureau and our foreign correspondents, nor have they contributed as much to each other. That is a tribute to Andy and Chuck and the individual editors of our papers.

But the War on Terrorism reminded us yet again what an important and high-risk job our journalists perform. Under the direction of Andy and Chuck our correspondents, many joined by recruits from back-home newspapers, performed brilliantly and, I’m happy to say, safely. They told important stories and they did so at great personal risk.

I am confident that whatever the future holds our men and women are up to any task. Once again, they have proved that. This is a tribute to their work.

President
Cox Newspapers, Inc.