Hasta La Creative!

The Washington Post and The Guardian U.S. won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for coverage of Edward J. Snowden’s leaked documents. The Boston Globe won the breaking news prize.

The newspaper said it would hire John L. Allen Jr. from The National Catholic Reporter and explore starting a publication aimed at Catholics.

The completion of the sale to John W. Henry, owner of the Boston Red Sox, had been held up by a lawsuit involving the Worcester, Mass., paper.

The sales of three giants of the old-media world — The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and Newsweek — in as many days suggest one kind of change, but their prices suggest another.

The sale continues a recent trend in the struggling newspaper industry: newspapers being returned to local owners, often at bargain-basement prices.

The newspaper was purchased by John W. Henry, principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, returning the paper to local ownership.

The Chicago Tribune really, really loves Boston. Following the moral support it showed last week in the wake of the bombings at the marathon (via an impressive stunt on the front page of the sports section), the Trib today doubled down by sending dozens of pizzas to the Boston Globe—a free lunch as a gesture of thanks and respect for the exhaustive and exhausting coverage the Globe reporters and editors churned out under difficult circumstances. "You make us all proud to be journalists," read the accompanying note. It's a wonderful gesture, and clearly appreciated by the Globe staffers. Some will say it's starting to feel a bit like an image campaign for the Tribune. But even so, who cares? Someone there is taking the time to show a little empathy and respect—two things that could be in greater supply at almost any news organization these days.

The searches were to root out leaks to the news media in a cheating scandal, and the staff members were not told until months later.