Gray Lady-Bound, Pulitzer Prize-Winner Wendy Ruderman Urges DN Brethren To Abandon Ship

PHILLY POST: How bad are things at the Daily News? New York Times-bound Wendy Ruderman [pictured, middle], a 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner, is urging her colleagues to jump ship. “I hate to say it, but if people at the Daily News aren’t looking, they should be,” says Ruderman, whose swan song is Thursday. “If they’re not, it’s kind of stupid … This place is rudderless.” Rumors of the DN’s imminent demise are nothing new. This time, however, it feels real, Ruderman, 42, says. Under new owners (again) and with circulation plummeting, everything is in flux as the DN and the Inquirer prepare to relocate to smaller headquarters downtown. “Morale couldn’t get any worse,” says Ruderman, who joined the DN in 2007 from the Inky, where she was about to be laid off after four years. “Nobody tells us anything. We’ve been through this before, but for the first time, it feels real. It’s scary.” Ruderman starts at the NYT on June 4th as police bureau chief. Based in One Police Plaza, she’ll help direct as well as report daily coverage of crime and cops. MORE

PULITZER 2010: Investigative Reporting – Awarded to Barbara Laker [pictured, left] and Wendy Ruderman of the Philadelphia Daily News for their resourceful reporting that exposed a rogue police narcotics squad, resulting in an FBI probe and the review of hundreds of criminal cases tainted by the scandal. MORE

RELATED: The dynamic duo are celebrating in the DN newsroom where we’re told Ruderman just drank champagne out of her sneaker.You can check out their winning series “Tainted Justice” here. MORE