Amoss, Jim

Named the National Press Foundation's 1997 Editor of the Year and Editor and Publisher's 2005 Editor of the Year, Jim Amoss has been editor of The Times-Picayune in New Orleans since July 1990. Previously, he had been associate editor of The Times-Picayune since 1988. Under his leadership, the paper won the 1997 Pulitzer Prizes in both public service and editorial cartooning. These were the paper's first Pulitzers since its inception in 1837. The paper also won the 2006 Pulitzer Prizes in public service and breaking news.

Amoss' journalism career began in 1974 as an investigative reporter for The States-Item, a New Orleans afternoon daily that merged with The Times-Picayune in 1980. He was named chief of The Times-Picayune's St. Bernard bureau that year and subsequently city editor in 1982, and metropolitan editor in 1983.

Amoss is a native of New Orleans, though he spent part of his growing up years in Germany and Belgium. In 1969, he graduated magna cum laude from Yale and went on to study as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, specializing in German literature and the work of Thomas Mann.

Amoss serves on the board of visitors of the Manship School of Mass Communications at Louisiana State University. Amoss previously served as a juror for the Pulitzer Prizes in 1994, 1995, 1999 and 2000. He is a member of the board of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

He is married to New Orleans architect Nancy Monroe. They are the parents of Adam and Sophie.

Amoss joined the Pulitzer Prize Board in May 2003.