The Pulitzer Prize for journalism has now been extended to print and digital magazines. This category now contains not only magazines, but also feature length and investigative reporting for newspapers too.
In the past, publications that were identified as magazines were ineligible to compete for a Pulitzer in any category. Many Americans in the last few years have gravitated towards digital for their daily news fix. This is chiefly due to everything being tremendously accessible – from dedicated apps on Android and iOS to websites that allow you to read content online to replica editions made available on distribution systems such as PressReader, Zinio and the Apple Newsstand. The decision to broaden the spectrum makes sense.
“After a considered review and discussion, we are adopting these changes in a spirit of experimentation, rooted in a commitment to the enduring values of great journalism.” said Pulitzer Prize administrator Mike Pride said in a statement. “We have chosen to focus our evolution on investigative reporting because of its relevance to public life and feature writing because of its emphasis on literary merit.”
While broadening the competition, the Pulitzer Board stressed that all entered material should originate from the United States and that they are are ”primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories,” and “adhere to the highest journalistic principles.”
It goes without saying that there is going to be an influx of new material that is going to be submitted for award consideration. If this occurs, there will likely be an earlier submission date so that the juries have more time to consider the publication and to cast their votes. Mike Pride said that likely they will bring on more jurors to handle the extra workload.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.