The Pulitzer Prize accepts online journalism (pt. 2)
December 16, 2008 at 12:40 pm Leave a comment
Simon Owens of http://bloggasm.com had this to say about the PPB’s announcement.
Hey, I read your post about the Pulitzer’s decision to open the prize up to online-only news outlets. I got a chance the other day to speak to Pulitzer administrator Sig Gissler for a PBS article in an attempt to nail down which online news outlets would qualify. I also spoke to the editors of Salon, Slate and ProPublica to gauge their reaction to the news (Salon editor Joan Walsh called the Pulitzer board “prissy”):
Anyway, I thought this was something you and your readers would find interesting.
Take care,
Simon
The PPB’s broad decision to include newsy online journalism is not only a nod to the growing reportage available and sought after on the internet but also perhaps a preemptive move to keep in the fold newspapers that have stopped their print persona but kept, even expanded, their online incarnation.
Simon’s article highlights hedging from the powers that be about who are eligible for the awards. PPB are keeping an open mind, but the onus is on the nominee to prove their eligibility.
This attitude seems to be at the heart of many literary organisations’ reluctance to include e-books in their awards – they can’t figure how to make them comply with competition format, e.g. all submissions must be in hardcopy. Goodness knows making judges read text onscreen is tantamount to torture for some (nevermind that they email, write and network online). Whatever. Lit orgs seem to think that they can’t change the status quo without offending somebody. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
Well, dudes, you’re damned IF you don’t do something and quick. Leaving aside the romantic notion of the sensory feedback one gets from print and the unchanging nature of books, organisations that plan to be future relevant need to consider the impact of the internet and electronic formats of reading material. Every year we lose thousands of print readers but the web gains millions of networks. Do the math.
Finally, I’m happy to see that the article brings up the point about non-US based journalists being excluded by the Pulitzer Prize. All I can say is, see this.
Entry filed under: Miscl, On writing. Tags: bloggasm, Pulitzer prize accepts online journalism.
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