For a distinguished example of local reporting of spot news, Five thousand dollars ($5,000).

Awarded to Staff of Newsday, Long Island, N.Y., for its enterprising coverage of the crash of TWA Flight 800 and its aftermath.

Columbia University President, George Rupp (left), presents Miriam Pawel with the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Reporting.

Finalists

Also nominated as finalists in this category were: The Philadelphia Inquirer staff for its powerful narrative coverage of the armed confrontation between police and philanthropist John DuPont following a murder at his estate, and the St. Petersburg Times staff for its thorough and balanced reporting of the circumstances surrounding the shooting of a young black man by a white police officer and the rioting that followed.