Commentary

Just An Online Minute... Pulitzers' Limited Online Nod

For the first time, the Pulitzer board will this year accept entries in breaking news and photography that only appeared online, as opposed to in print. The rule change allows the Times-Picayune, New Orleans's daily paper, to compete for a prize for its coverage of Hurricane Katrina, when flooding prevented the newspaper from publishing on paper for three days.

Even though newspapers have been online for years, it apparently took a crisis like the hurricane for the bastion of media's old guard to acknowledge that breaking news today is published online.

Not only is breaking news published online, but readers depend on the Web for the latest developments. Traffic to news sites always spikes when major events--ranging from elections to natural disasters--unfold. This year, traffic to Nola.com, the Web site of the Times-Picayune, increased by more than 1,000 percent during the hurricane, according to research company Hitwise.

Despite the nod to online publishing, the Pulitzer board seems oddly wed to the idea that the best journalism, or at least that most worthy of accolades, is sponsored by traditional print publications. In an era when online magazines like Salon and Slate regularly publish provocative pieces, when blogs break news, and traditional newspapers expand their Web-only add-ons, the division between print and online is increasingly artificial.

Still, the Pulitzer board's decision can only be a good thing for the Web. It gives newspapers one more reason to put quality content on the Web, which in turn will help elevate the entire online publishing industry.

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