FROM THE NEWSROOM:Pilot alum close to Pulitzer

Last Monday, I had hoped to report some really, really big news to you all. Well, really big news in Daily Pilot land anyway.

One of our former reporters, Christopher Goffard, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature writing and I had hoped to report he won.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, as he was beaten out by some paper called the New York Times, or something like that.

But either way, he’s a Pulitzer winner to me.

The Pulitzer Prizes, in case you don’t know, are awarded each year to the top contributors in journalism, the arts and letters. To see the 2007 winners, visit www.pulitzer.org.

Named after Hungarian-born newspaperman Joseph Pulitzer, the prizes are the dream of every journalist. And Goffard came, thisclose to realizing that dream.

Here is what the Pulitzer Board said:

“For a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to quality of writing, originality and concision, in print or in print and online, ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

Awarded to Andrea Elliott of The New York Times for her intimate, richly textured portrait of an immigrant imam striving to find his way and serve his faithful in America.

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: Christopher Goffard of the St. Petersburg Times for his fresh and compelling stories about a young public defender and his daily challenges, and Inara Verzemnieks of The Oregonian, Portland, for her witty and perceptive portfolio of features on an array of everyday topics.”

A link to Goffard’s piece that won him consideration is www.sptimes.com/2006/ webspecials06/lawyer/.

Goffard came to us in the late 1990s. A graduate of Cornell University, he had tried his hand editing Hollywood screenplays and when he decided that wasn’t his gig he came looking for work in the news business.

He showed up on our doorstep and started as a lowly news assistant at one of our sister papers, typing in calendar items and letters to the editor.

But even then his talent was unmistakable and oh-so apparent, and he climbed the ladder quickly.

After a few short stints at some of our weekly papers, we snapped him up and put him to work covering police and courts for the Daily Pilot.

He covered a number of high-profile crime stories, including the slaying of one of our Daily Pilot employees and the murder trial of Denise Huber.

He even did a multi-length feature on local death row inmate, Eric Wayne Bennett, traveling to San Quentin to interview the killer who lives among such notable criminals as Night Stalker Richard Ramirez.

It was clear to me and the rest of us who worked with Goffard that he was a big-time talent. And proof was his leap from the relatively small pages of the Daily Pilot to the St. Petersburg Times, a major metropolitan paper in St. Petersburg Florida, where he did his Pulitzer finalist work.

Goffard left the St. Pete Times a little more than a year ago to return home and go to work down the hall from me as a Los Angeles Times staff writer.

Not a bad path to take.

When I asked him to give me a statement about his brush with the Pulitzers, here’s what he said:

“Everything I needed to know I learned on the cop beat at the Daily Pilot,” he said. “It was probably the most maddeningly stressful, educational year and a half of my career.”

While I’d love to believe that’s true, I know in truth he made the Daily Pilot so much better while he was here.

Congrats Chris, and next year, I’m sure the Pulitzer board will get it right.

Speaking of congratulations, I received an announcement last week from former Daily Pilot Editor S.J. Cahn that he has started his own communications company.

SJ Cahn Communications “specializes in producing compelling and persuasive written and verbal communications for diverse business, political and nonprofit needs,” according to the announcement.

In an e-mail, he told me what he was up to:

“I’m excited to be doing something new, but something that is still near and dear to my heart: work involving the media,” he said. “Many of the tools and skills I honed working at the Pilot are central to what I’m doing, so it feels like a natural extension of my career. So far, it’s been fun, eye-opening and rewarding. I expect I’ll be getting out and about in Newport-Mesa more now that the business is launched, and I’m also looking forward to renewing old friendships and business relations. Interacting with people was always among my favorite parts of being with the Pilot. Now, I’ll just be doing it for myself instead of the paper!”

In other words, expect to hear from him soon.