Jim Trotter Is 2010 Mimi Award Winner

Associated Press editor Jim Trotter, formerly of the Rocky Mountain News, has been named the recipient of the Dart Society’s 2010 Mimi Award. The award, which carries a $1,000 cash prize, will be presented to Trotter in September.

Trotter said he was thrilled by the news of the award.

The Mimi is given annually to a U.S. print, online or wire service editor who embodies the compassion and leadership of the late Providence Journal editor Mimi Burkhardt.

Nominations for the Mimi Award are made by reporters. Click here to see past winners.

“To work on a project with Jim is to learn much about writing, much about narrative and much about the nature of great reporting,” his nominators wrote. “But what places Jim among the best editors of his generation is his ability to point writers toward a better understanding of the human condition and the role journalists can still play in making that condition just slightly better.”

Trotter, 63, was an assistant managing editor and projects editor at the Rocky Mountain News until it was shut down in February 2009. Trotter has also written for The Sacramento Bee, the San Jose Mercury News, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Miami Herald and the Austin American-Statesman. He is now West Enterprise editor for the AP’s Western region and is based in Phoenix.

Trotter was nominated by former Rocky Mountain News colleagues Mike Littwin, Kevin Vaughan, Tina Griego and Jim Sheeler, whose series, “Final Salute,” was overseen by Trotter and won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. Click here to read the nomination essay.

“Every year, our judges are presented with a slate of incredibly talented and nurturing editors. These men and women so rarely get the glory, but they really are the backbone of so many of the best stories written,” said Mimi Committee Chairperson Melissa Manware Treadaway, who has been involved with the Mimi since its inception four years ago. “One writer said Jim pushed him to do better work than he ever imagined he could. To me, there is no bigger compliment for an editor.”

The judges reviewed examples of the editors’ work, read letters of nomination and conducted interviews with the top finalists’ coworkers.

The Dart Society is a network of journalists who have received fellowships or awards from the Dart Center.