Politico Executive Editor Elected to Pulitzer Board

By: E&P Staff Politico Executive Editor Jim VandeHei has been elected to the Pulitzer Prize Board, Columbia University announced Monday.

VandeHei, 38, becomes the first member of the Pulitzer Board from a news outlet that reports primarily online. ?In many ways, the Pulitzer Board is on the same mission as Politico: to embrace new media while fighting to protect the highest standards for writing, reporting and accuracy,? VandeHei said in a statement. ?I am honored to be a part of this effort."

His appointment to the board serves as another signal that the Pulitzers are branching out into the online realm. The Pulitzer Board first allowed online content in entries in 1999, but only from newspapers. In 2008, it began accepting entries from online-only publications that actively did their own news reporting.

Board members serve for a three-year term. The Pulitzer juries begin screening in March, with the 19-member board making the final deliberations.

VandeHei was a congressional correspondent for Roll Call before covering both Capitol Hill and the first year of George W. Bush?s presidency for The Wall Street Journal in 1999. He joined The Washington Post in 2002, where me met political editor John Harris -- with whom he would eventually co-found Politico.