[2] The Virgin Islands Daily News was founded by Ariel Melchior Sr. in 1930, with business partner J. Antonio Jarvis leveraging a tourist brochure financed with a bank loan cosigned by friend Adolph Achille Gereau.

"[7] The series determined that the police were catching too few criminals, that prosecutors were losing too many cases, and that judges were handing out light sentences.

After the articles ran, a new police commissioner and attorney general were appointed for the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a top narcotics official quit.

The Pulitzer Committee made the citation: "Awarded to The Virgin Islands Daily News, St. Thomas, for its disclosure of the links between the region's rampant crime rate and corruption in the local criminal justice system.

"[9] The Virgin Islands Daily News, with limited resources, beat out the much larger Charlotte Observer and the Philadelphia Inquirer to claim the prize.

The Virgin Islands Daily News is the third-smallest newspaper to ever win the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the smallest being the Point Reyes Light in Marin County, California.

[11] In 2007 the paper won the Associated Press Managing Editors Award for Public Service in the small circulation category for its investigation into incompetence and corruption in the police department's major crimes unit.

In 2016, the paper again won the public service award (newspapers under 50,000 circulation) from The Society of Professional Journalists for its extensive and ongoing coverage of the U.S. Virgin Islands government.

[15] In 2022, the paper won the second place Sunshine State Award in Editorial Writing from the Florida chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.