do you know where's the article he published that won him the prize?
It wasn't a New York Times column. It was a bunch of research stuff he did that was published in economical journals which led him to win. Top class economists always write long long thesis that are published by world class journals, and consistently being updated by the individual economists.
Prof. Krugman is only more well known than most of his peers because he's a regular columnist for a long time. In the 90s, he wrote for Forbes, while still being a liberal. In 2000 onwards, he writes for New York Times as a paid columnist, demonstrating his understanding for politics and social policies. His fellow peers just write for outside journals and for their internal business school journals within the universities.
So they aren't as famous.
Oh btw, Prof. Krugman has a very post at Princeton. He's now occupying the same post as Ben Berkanke, even though both are ideologically opposite.