Portland weekly paper gets Pulitzer

PORTLAND — Nigel Jaquiss stared off into space, his eyes brimming with tears when word hit the alternative weekly's newsroom that he had won a Pulitzer Prize, journalism's most coveted award, for uncovering a three-decade-old sex-abuse scandal involving a former governor.

"I never thought it would happen to me," said Jaquiss, 42, a former Wall Street oil trader who is now an investigative reporter at the Willamette Week, a Portland weekly known for its edgy critique of Oregon politics.

Following up leads that larger newspapers had overlooked, Jaquiss documented a sexual relationship in the 1970s between Neil Goldschmidt, then mayor of Portland, and a 14-year-old girl who baby-sat for his children. After serving as mayor, Goldschmidt went on to become governor and then was secretary of transportation in the Cabinet of President Carter.

Willamette Week published Jaquiss' story last May.

The Oregon newspaper is the fifth alternative weekly to win a Pulitzer, said Roxanne Cooper, director of marketing for the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, in Washington, D.C. The Village Voice has received three, and the Boston Phoenix the fourth, she said.

"I think most of us know how unusual it is for a paper our size to win this award," said Mark Zusman, editor of Willamette Week, which has an unpaid circulation of 90,000.

"We offer them our heartfelt congratulations," said Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian. The daily, which has won three Pulitzers over the past five years, also was a finalist this year for a series it ran on methamphetamine use.

Rumors of the prize spread throughout the morning, prompting one Willamette Week editor to dash out for six bottles of champagne.

Shortly after noon yesterday, the newspaper staff gathered around a speaker phone in Zusman's office for an incoming phone call. It was Western Union, calling to say: "You were awarded the Pulitzer Prize."

The room erupted into applause and soon after, Jaquiss was bathed in champagne. So was Zusman, the newspaper's editor.

Willamette Week, founded 30 years ago, has established a name for going after hard news.

Foremost was Jaquiss' pursuit of a rumor that Goldschmidt, a revered former governor and one of the most respected politicians in Oregon, had sex for three years with his children's baby-sitter while he was Portland mayor.

When Willamette Week approached Goldschmidt's lawyers and informed them of their plans to publish the story, Goldschmidt resigned from his position on Oregon's Board of Higher Education, citing ill health. Within hours of the article appearing on the Willamette Week's Web site, the politician called a meeting with editors from The Oregonian in which he acknowledged that he had had sex with the 14-year-old while he was Portland mayor.