Editor Thomas Winship announced the creation of the Spotlight Team to pursue sustained, in-depth investigations—an institutional shift that strengthened the Globe’s long-form regional accountability reporting.
Spotlight’s investigation into municipal corruption in Somerville, Massachusetts won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting, demonstrating how regional investigative work could trigger official scrutiny and civic consequences.
Editorial cartoonist Paul Szep received a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, reinforcing the Globe’s influence in regional political discourse through visual commentary during a turbulent era in Massachusetts and national politics.
The Globe’s intensive local reporting on Boston’s school desegregation crisis was recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, underscoring the paper’s central role in shaping public understanding of contentious regional politics.
Szep won a second Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning, reflecting the sustained prominence of the Globe’s opinion and editorial voice in New England’s political environment.
A Spotlight Team series on problems at Boston’s transit system (MBTA) won the 1980 Pulitzer for Local Investigative Specialized Reporting, illustrating how deep local reporting could elevate statewide governance issues.
The Globe won a 1984 Pulitzer for a series examining race relations in Boston, an effort that focused on the city’s institutions (including the newspaper itself) and helped frame regional debates about equity and public life.
The Spotlight Team reported on a secretive relationship between gangster James “Whitey” Bulger and the FBI, a major regional story that later fed broader public scrutiny of law enforcement integrity in Boston.
The New York Times Company purchased The Boston Globe and Affiliated Publications, a major ownership change for the region’s dominant daily that shaped resources and strategy for New England reporting through the 1990s.
Boston.com launched in October 1995, extending the Globe’s regional reporting and service journalism online and widening the newspaper’s influence beyond print across Greater Boston and New England.
A Spotlight series in July 1998 revisited Bulger and the FBI with detailed reporting, amplifying public understanding of the scandal’s scope and its implications for federal law enforcement credibility in Boston.
The New York Times Company purchased the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, a move described as complementing the Globe’s circulation area and reflecting the era’s regional strategy for news reach in Massachusetts.
The Boston Globe's regional reporting and political influence (1960-2000)
