Dogged persistance garners a Pulitzer

Michael Pollick of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune writes Monday about the work of his colleague Paige St. John, who won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for uncovering the problems with Florida’s property & casualty insurance industry.

Pollick writes, “St. John faced major roadblocks to getting the story. Reinsurance companies refused interview requests. State regulators forbade staff employees from speaking and initially denied, then delayed requests for public records crucial to creating the newspaper’s first-of-its kind analysis of what really had happened to the Florida insurance market.

“St. John cultivated anonymous sources deep within the industry, persisted in her demands for public records, and traveled to Bermuda and Monte Carlo, both beehives for off-shore financial dealings, to confront corporate leaders who were otherwise unavailable.

“The result was what regulators and almost the entire industry tried to hide — that Floridians entrust their financial security and that of their communities to a system that is on the edge of disaster itself.”

Read more here.