Transforming New Hampshire’s Concord Monitor into an award-winning paragon of local journalism, mentoring generations of reporters and editors, defying the trope of the dying small-town newspaper, and embracing his profession. Mike Pryde, who had a great impact, passed away on April 24th. He was 76 while in a hospice in Palm Harbor, Florida.
the cause is Myelofibrosis is a rare type of blood cancer, said his son, Dr. Yuri Pryde.
Mr. Pryde, editor-in-chief of The Monitor from 1978 to 1983 and until his retirement in 2008, oversaw The Monitor’s eloquent coverage of the death of its hometown heroine, an astronaut. In 1987, he won the National Press Foundation’s Editor of the Year award. Teacher Christa McAuliffe, Space Shuttle Challenger explosion accident.
And he presided over a newspaper regarded as a model of objective reporting, in contrast to the fiery front-page editorials of the same New Hampshire paper, The Manchester Union Leader, and for young journalists, he was the unrivaled leader in political reporting every four years. It became a training ground. As the state hosts its first presidential primary, emerging from relative obscurity and drawing a scrum of national press corps on buses with candidates from both major parties.
In 2008, The Monitor’s Preston Gannaway won the Pulitzer Prize for Best Feature Photography for his intimate account of a family battling a parent’s terminal illness. Under Mr. Pryde’s leadership, the New England Journalists Association has named the Monitor New England Newspaper of the Year 19 times.
“We see ourselves as a local paper with deep roots in this community,” he said. Review of American Journalism “Even though we are small, we don’t think like that.”
Daily sales of newspapers did not believe the impact. With a circulation of about 22,000, half of Concord’s population, Concord, as the capital of the state, is bustling with politicians, lobbyists and patrons during legislative sessions.
During Mr. Pryde’s tenure, The Monitor reported that former New Hampshire Attorney General David Suter was elevated to the Supreme Court. Mass release of patients from psychiatric hospitals without adequate support in the community to which they are discharged. Efforts of a Roman Catholic Diocese to protect priests accused of sexual abuse. and the appointment of the first openly gay Anglican bishop.
Pryde introduced a diverse pool of rotating community columnists and incorporated a regular feature about prison life written by an inmate serving a life sentence for murdering his ex-wife’s boyfriend. He invited a local poet to lunch at the newsroom and encouraged reporters to write more lyrically. Thanks to support from the publishers he worked for, the newsroom staff grew from 18 at one point to 46 for him.
Like any newsroom, The Monitor was no heaven. Mr. Pride can be surly and intimidating. And in 1986, the morning of the Challenger explosion, he was in court in a lawsuit over overtime, in which The Monitor argued that reporters should be treated as salaried professionals, not as hourly workers. argued, but lost.
From 2014 to 2017, Mr. Pryde served as custodian of the Pulitzer Prize. He was the first and only former Pulitzer juror and board member to hold the position (he was co-chair in 2008). He employed a more diverse jury and published the contest in online and print magazines.
“He showed us the power of words and how to use them carefully and without fear,” says Joe, who worked for Monitor and later became a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for the New York Times. Becker said.
“His ambitions for us certainly exceeded our actual capabilities at the time,” she added. “But it was his gift. He believed in us and somehow he made us believe we could achieve the high hurdles he set.”
Charles Michael Pryde was born on July 31, 1946 in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His father Charles had a variety of jobs, from selling cars to designing cemeteries. His mother, Bernadine (Nordstrom) Pryde, was a county employee and homemaker. When Mike was two years old, the family moved to Clearwater, Florida.
He signed his first petition at age 14 after being recruited by his cousin, Tampa Tribune sports editor Ron Pryde, to cover a high school track and field event. After dropping out of the University of Florida in 1966, Pryde enlisted in the Army, studied Russian at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, and was deployed to West Germany. There he intercepted information suggesting that the Soviet Union was about to invade Czechoslovakia. This intelligence coup had been saved by an imprudent senior officer without forwarding it urgently.
After being discharged from hospital, Pryde was hired as a sports reporter for the Tribune. He worked nights, which enabled him to earn a daytime bachelor’s degree in 1972 from the University of South Florida. After graduating, he was hired by the Clearwater Sun, eventually becoming the city’s editor. He then took a job with the Tallahassee Democratic Party, where he worked as an editor when he was scouted by the publishers of The Monitor.
Mr. Pride has written hundreds of columns for other publications, including The Monitor and Brill’s Content magazine. He wrote, co-authored, or edited eight of his books, including several on the Civil War and World War II.
In 1970 he married Monique Prato, whom he survived. In addition to his son Yuri, he also has two other surviving sons, Sven and Misha. 6 grandchildren. his younger brother Robin. and his sister Pamela Pryde.
