Amy Pyle

Amy Pyle is an American journalist and media executive. She has worked for a number of high-profile organizations, including as the Editor-in-Chief of The Center for Investigative Reporting from 2012 to 2018, USA Today as Head of Investigations, and for the Los Angeles Times and The Sacramento Bee.

She contributed to two Pulitzer prize-winning teams, and overseen teams which have earned Pulitzer finalist nominations, a George Foster Peabody award, and a George Polk award.[1][2]

Early life and education

Pyle got a BA in French from Mills College and a masters degree in Journalism at Northwestern University.

According her alma mater, Pyle says "The chance to study at an historic women’s college also provided an advantage.... 'You can’t undervalue the strength of being at an institution where the editor of the paper is always a woman and the president is always a woman,' Pyle says. 'It was empowering.'"[3]

Career

In 2018, the California News Publishers Association reported that "Amy Pyle, editor in chief at The Center for Investigative Reporting in Emeryville, joins Gannett's USA Today Network as head of investigations."[4] They noted that Pyle had previously been with the CIR since 2012.

Under her leadership at the CIR, reporters Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter[1] were named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in the national reporting category today for their investigation into forced labor at drug rehabilitation centers.[5]

Of the Pulitzer nomination, Pyle said "We're so proud of Amy Julia and Shoshana; they've worked tirelessly on this story and they're not done."[5]

Likewise, Stanford University's Journalism Program noted that "under her editorial leadership, the organization has won a George Foster Peabody award for its investigation into opiate prescriptions by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. That work has also prompted Congressional hearings."[6]

They also noted that Pyle, "along with the LA Times staff, won the 1995 Pulitzer Prize for spot news writing for coverage of the earthquake that rocked the city in the previous year."[6]

During her career as a media executive Pyle has spoken at a variety of institutions. Occidental College wrote up some of her views on journalism, which she shared at a 2017 panel with Ewin Chemerinsky and Salam Al-Marayati:

Mainstream journalists constantly wrestle not only with how to define objective journalism, but what their First Amendment rights are as individuals and what that means for their reporting, Pyle said.

Mere balance in news coverage is not the goal, Pyle said."I don’t think talking heads, one on each side, gets us very far." Objective journalism is fact-based, and journalists should not be advocates, but strive to maintain neutrality. "I talked a lot about this with the newspaper [the student-run Occidental Weekly] today. Campus journalists are feeling their way through this issue, that sometimes you wear two hats, protestor and journalist. I believe you can’t wear both at the same time."[7]

Awards and honors
  • Contributor to two Pulitzer prize-winning teams.[6]
  • Has overseen teams which have earned Pulitzer finalist nominations, a George Foster Peabody award, and a George Polk award.[1][2]

References
  1. Pulitzer Prize Foundation (October 13, 2023). "Finalist: Amy Julia Harris and Shoshana Walter of Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting".
  2. CUNY.edu. "2017 Fellows". Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  3. Quarterly, Mills (2022-03-31). "The Write Stuff". Mills Quarterly. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  4. simon@cnpa.com (2018-08-28). "Amy Pyle to head USA Today investigations". CNPA. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  5. staff, Reveal (2018-04-16). "Reveal project All Work. No Pay. named a Pulitzer finalist". Reveal. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  6. Journalism, Stanford (2017-10-24). "Reveal's Amy Pyle on changing the world through journalism". Medium. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
  7. "First Amendment Issues Explored at Occidental". www.oxy.edu. 2017-02-09. Retrieved 2023-10-13.
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