By: Joe Strupp So what made this year's Pulitzer Prizes different? Well, for starters, there were two winners of the prestigious Public Service gold medal ? for only the fifth time ever ? and two winners in national reporting, the sixth time that has happened. The Pulitzer board also made the rare move of overruling its judges, choosing a winner that was not a finalist, in moving The Times-Picayune of New Orleans up to share the Public Service award with The Sun-Herald of Biloxi, Miss., both for Hurricane Katrina coverage.
Web entries made their first appearance in all 14 journalism categories, accounting for at least 10% of the total submissions (more than 1 out of 4 in the photography categories) and contributing to at least five winners. Pulitzer Administrator Sig Gissler says the online entries "played a significant role," and he expects the number of Web entries to increase in coming years. Previously, Web submissions could only be made in the Public Service category. Even blog entries are now accepted, although podcasting is still out.
One thing did not change this year: Leaks from judges, editors, and reporters enabled E&P Online to post an accurate list of finalists well in advance of the official announcement.
Hurricane Katrina and government accountability led the prizes. It was a real "watchdog" year, and the White House, in fact, had tried to subvert winning reports by Dana Priest of The Washington Post and The New York Times' James Risen and Eric Lichtblau. The Post scored four prizes ? the most of any paper this year ? while Tribune Co. got shut out, despite earning several finalist nods. Surprisingly, Iraq war coverage received relatively little notice, with the only winners a pair of homefront efforts by the Rocky Mountain News of Denver in feature writing and photography for its "Final Salute" series.
"At a time when the news media is often criticized, the winners and finalists are an example of high-quality journalism," Gissler declares. The number of entries dipped only very slightly this time around, from 1,326 last year to 1,324 this year.
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