Nick Perry
A native of New Zealand, Nick Perry has reported in Auckland, Seattle and, for the Associated Press, across New Zealand and the South Pacific. He co-wrote the Seattle Times series “Victory and Ruins” and the book Scoreboard, Baby with Ken Armstrong.
Career
| Years | Position |
|---|---|
| 1998–2000 | Reporter, The New Zealand Herald, Auckland |
Perry began his career at the New Zealand Herald, covering health care and the changing face of Auckland in the build-up to the America’s Cup sailing race. He won a national Qantas Award for his work in 2000. | |
| 2000–2002 | Reporter, Eastside Journal |
In 2000 he moved to Seattle and joined the Eastside Journal, a newspaper in Seattle’s eastern suburbs. | |
| 2002–2011 | Reporter, The Seattle Times |
Perry spent nine years at The Seattle Times, five of them on the higher-education beat, writing about the gender gap in colleges, the debt carried by students and fraternity deaths, among other issues. With Ken Armstrong he reported “Victory and Ruins” (2008). He was part of the Times staff that won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting, for coverage of the shooting deaths of four police officers. | |
| 2011 | Knight-Wallace Fellow, University of Michigan |
He was a 2011 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan. His fellowship study was titled “Are American Colleges Failing Their Students?” | |
| from 2011 | Correspondent, The Associated Press, Wellington |
In June 2011 he became the Associated Press correspondent for New Zealand and the South Pacific, based in Wellington. AP’s Asia-Pacific editor said he would be responsible for “a huge swath of territory that contains some of the world’s most fascinating places.” | |
Selected AP reporting
- September 2018
Unwanted by Australia, refugees on Nauru have few options
While covering the Pacific Islands Forum on Nauru, where access for journalists was restricted, Perry reported on refugees held on the island. AP singled the work out in its internal “best of the week” notes.
- March 15, 2019
49 killed at mosques in ‘one of New Zealand’s darkest days’
AP story on the Christchurch mosque attacks, written with Mark Baker; Perry reported from Wellington.
In his words
I approach the subject of college football as an outsider. A native of New Zealand, I grew up with cricket and rugby.
At the time of writing the newspaper series, we knew we were leaving important material on the cutting room floor.
The problems today in many ways reflect the problems of 100 years ago.
Honors
- George Polk Award, 2008, with Ken Armstrong, for “Victory and Ruins”
- Michael Kelly Award, 2009, with Ken Armstrong
- Payne Award for Ethics in Journalism, 2009, with Ken Armstrong
- Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting, 2010, shared as part of The Seattle Times staff
- Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Fact Crime, 2011, with Ken Armstrong, for Scoreboard, Baby
- Knight-Wallace Fellowship, University of Michigan, 2011
- National honors for beat reporting from the Education Writers Association
- Qantas Award (New Zealand), 2000