Foster grew up in a hard-scrabble household in Tullahoma, Tenn. He was a sports editor for a weekly newspaper and then went on to Middle Tennessee State University in 1982. At another newspaper, I hired Foster as a reporter. He was a bulldog. When he bit into a story, particularly one that had a whiff of impropriety or governmental ineptitude, he wouldn't let go. Still won't. ''I think David-versus-Goliath stories give us a niche that will help newspapers survive,'' Foster explained as he thought about being the editor of a small newspaper that had just won a Pulitzer Prize. ''It's not the easiest or sexiest kind of story, to write about mineral rights. Doing this story required heavy lifting and intellect. But it was unanimous in our community that this was the sort of work we should be doing"/Chris Peck, Memphis (Tenn.) Commercial Appeal. More here. (AP Photo/Bristol Herald Courier, David Crigger: Bristol Herald Courier Publisher Carl Esposito, left, and Editor Todd Foster toast the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service won by the Bristol Herald Courier.)

• DFO: As I mentioned last week, J. Todd Foster was a reporter in the Coeur d'Alene newsroom of the Spokesman-Review in the 1980s. Chris Peck, of course, is a former editor of the Spokesman-Review.

Question: Do you pay attention to the prizes won by newspaper reporters, photographers, columnists, etc.?

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