Roy J. Harris Jr.
Roy Harris is a former Wall Street Journal reporter and editor who has also edited and written for online news sites and magazines. He is the author of the 2008 book "Pulitzer's Gold: Behind the Prize for Public Service Journalism," published by the University of Missouri Press, and brought out in an updated 2010 paperback version.
The president of the ASBPE Foundation, an educational nonprofit affiliated with the American Society of Business Publication Editors, he was ASBPE's national president from 2005 to 2007. Most recently he was editorial director, until April 2012, of CFOworld, an online corporate-finance startup created in January 2011 by International Data Group, based in Framingham, Mass. Previously, he served as senior editor for 15 years for what was then The Economist Group's CFO Magazine, a 450,000-circulation, Boston-based publication, also helping run its CFO.com website.
In 23 years with The Journal he spent two decades in Los Angeles, with six years as deputy chief of the 14-member L.A. bureau. Early in his career he served stints reporting for the Los Angeles Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
An authority on the Pulitzer Prizes, he contributes often to Poynter Online on that and other topics. He also has served on the adjunct journalism faculty at Boston's Emerson College, where he originated a class in "impact journalism."
He lives in Hingham, MA.
Roy J. Harris Jr.
Apr. 26, 2013
8:59 am
Mark Twain once called reports of his death exaggerated. But what can be done if the media doesn’t give a person’s actual passing the serious attention it deserves?

- Martyl Langsdorf (courtesy Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which published an appreciation
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Apr. 15, 2013
7:00 am
About a half-dozen journalism organizations have already weighed in on their versions of 2012’s best reporting, commentary and press photography. Today at 3 p.m. ET, it’s the Pulitzer Prize Board’s turn — for the 97th time — to announce the … Read more
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Mar. 6, 2013
12:05 pm
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Apr. 18, 2012
10:39 am
There’s no question that the investigative soul of The Patriot-News now resides largely with its first Pulitzer Prize-winner: 24-year-old Sara Ganim, whose reporting of alleged sexual abuse by an ex-Penn State football coach shook the paper’s 67,000 central Pennsylvania … Read more
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Apr. 13, 2012
10:10 am
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Sep. 6, 2011
7:54 am
There’s an old joke that refers to newspapers as “the daily miracle.” But one edition a decade ago, assembled by Wall Street Journal staffers on Sept. 11, 2001, was truly miraculous.
First, it was astounding that the Journal could be … Read more
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Aug. 31, 2011
6:06 am
The New York Times retrospective on the decade since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — an enterprise that includes the currently online “Portraits Redrawn,” and a special Sunday, Sept. 11, print section under the heading “The Reckoning” – … Read more
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Apr. 17, 2011
7:02 pm
In the run-up to last year’s Pulitzer Prizes, the rumor mill furiously churned over the National Enquirer’s coverage exposing the marital infidelity of one-time Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards. First, reports circulated that it would be barred from the Pulitzer … Read more
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
Mar. 4, 2011
6:41 am
Looking back, it’s hard to imagine how Martin Baron, or any brand-new editor, could have had a stronger start than he did his first day at the Boston Globe. Within hours of his inaugural morning staff meeting, Baron “lit the … Read more
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Roy J. Harris Jr.
June 13, 2010
12:57 pm
Maybe it’s because “Team of Rivals” was my bedside reading here in Las Vegas. But it’s hard not to think of the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in historical terms.
How long ago was it that surly, investigative lone … Read more
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