NEW YORK—As part of an effort to recognize digital news sites doing important investigative and breaking news coverage, the Pulitzer Prize Board has voted to expand eligibility for its journalism awards to digital news sites operated by broadcast and audio organizations.
The board stressed, however, that entries from these organizations should rely essentially on written journalism.
The revision reflect some of the major changes that have occurred in journalism as a result of the rise of digital media in the last two decades.
Historically, broadcast outlets were prohibited from entering the Pulitzer Prizes because they produced very little text-based journalism, the board said. This distinction, however, has become much less relevant with the growth of large digital media sites run by broadcasters and audio companies and with the changing nature of many newspaper entries, which now include still photography, audio, data visuals and video.
Given the multimedia nature of modern journalism, the Board said that it could no longer justify excluding comparable entries from news sites belonging to broadcast and audio media companies.
“The Board made this change to open the door to more digital news sites that are doing important written investigative, enterprise and breaking news work,” said Pulitzer administrator Marjorie Miller. “Although video may be part of the entry, these are not awards for broadcast journalism.”
While the previous Pulitzer Plan of Award stated that broadcast media and their news sites were ineligible, the revised Plan will say that the annual Prizes in Journalism for work published in the previous year may come from a U.S. newspaper, magazine or news site, adding that “news sites associated with broadcast and audio outlets are eligible.”
The change will go into effect for the 2024 Prizes, which will begin accepting entries in December.
The Pulitzer Prizes, which are administered at Columbia University, were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.
The 18-member board is composed mainly of leading journalists or news executives from media outlets across the U.S., as well as five academics or persons in the arts. The dean of Columbia's journalism school and the administrator of the prizes are non-voting members.
