• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, November 6, 2023

Broadcast sites that previously were barred are now eligible for Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, the Pulitzer Board announced on Monday.  

The change will take effect with the 2024 Prizes. Entries will be accepted starting in December.

That doesn’t mean audio and video submissions can win — the entries must be text-based.  

“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.” 

Still, one can imagine that some print journalists will be unhappy with the new competition. 

Newspapers are having enough problems these days without having to fight well-funded broadcast institutions for awards. Presumably, the written stories that are on the CNN and MSNBC web sites, to name but two outlets, can now win the coveted prizes.  

Citing the “multimedia nature of modern journalism,” the Pulitzer Board observes that broadcast outlets now produce a great quantity of text-based journalism, while newspaper entry packages include still photography, audio, data visuals and video. 

Does that mean video and audio could seep into awards considerations at some point? Journalism awards should be based on investigative breakthroughs and overall quality, including literary. 

The revised Pulitzer Plan says that the annual Prizes in Journalism may come from a U.S. newspaper, magazine or news site for work done in the previous year.   

It adds that “news sites associated with broadcast and audio outlets are eligible.”

We assume the judges will uphold high journalistic standards, whatever the medium.