Though the most prestigious award in writing has yet to fully embrace online content, the Pulitzer Prize Board announced that more online material would be considered; but the board, perhaps stubbornly traditional, still only allows online submissions that have a print counterpart.
The Pulitzer was expanded for the first time in 2005 to include any online content at all, but limited submissions to written stories or still images. This year the panel added online material like databases, blogs, interactive graphics and streaming video to all of its journalism categories.
“This board believes that its much fuller embrace of online journalism reflects the direction of newspapers in a rapidly changing media world,” said Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes.
But not a completely full embrace. In only two categories, Breaking News Reporting and Breaking News Photography, will online-only content be accepted. The rest may contain online material but also must contain material published in the newspaper’s print edition.
As for restricting entrants to newspapers that publish at least once a week, Gissler says “this keeps faith with the historic mandate of the Pulitzer Prizes.”
It ignores a bit, though, by excluding online-only publications, the historic mandate of the Internet at large, which is changing journalism forever. Until then, online journalists may look to the Online News Association for a bit of excellence recognition.
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