INQ hacks can now get a Pulitzer

IT WILL NOW be possible for online hacks to win Pulitzer prizes after the outfit in charge of awarding them decided to change its rules.

Until now only those hacks who still worked for print, television or radio could get a swanky Pulitzer award. Now the Pulitzer board has decided that it will accept entries made up entirely of online content for all 14 of its prize categories.

Sig Gissler, administrator of the prizes that are the most prestigious award in journalism, said that the move will recognise more fully the role of the interweb, while underscoring the enduring value of words and serious reporting [I thought you said INQ hacks would be eligible. ed]

Online newspapers will be eligible if they publish at least weekly and are dedicated to original reporting. Bog sites that comment on the news without creating anything new themselves will still be ineligible.

For a while the Board used to have a double standard. It used to accept online entries only from old media outfits that happened to have stuck up news on a website. If a site was entirely based online then it was not a news organisation in the view of the Board.

This slanting is fairly typical of the attitude of the US traditional media which tends to give status to hacks who parrot politicians and seem to spend most of their time writing about themselves while burying the news halfway down their stories.

The online boom has largely gutted the US print news industry in a way that has not been seen in the more independent newspaper markets of Europe. µ

L'Inq
AP