Skip to main content

2016 Letter to the Journalism Community

Greetings!

We invite you to submit entries for the 2016 Pulitzer Prizes in Journalism. We also want to underscore some changes or developments in the competition:

  • Five categories now allow some magazines and their news sites to enter. They are Investigative Reporting, International Reporting, Feature Writing, Criticism and Editorial Cartooning. Links to eligibility rules for magazines are on the Pulitzer Prize website at www.pulitzer.org.
  • The Board has new requirements for entry letters (see below).
  • The Pulitzer Prize Board accepts and judges its 14 journalism categories through an electronic system. All entry material must be submitted in digital form through the Pulitzer entry site. A link to this site, along with the latest rules and guidelines, can be found at www.pulitzer.org.
  • The deadline for journalism entries is Jan. 25, 2016.
  • The $50 entry fee (nonrefundable) must be paid by credit card.

The electronic system makes it easier for Pulitzer journalism jurors and the Pulitzer Board to manage and judge entries, which number about 1,100 per year. Juries meet at Columbia University to review entries and, after discussion, nominate three finalists in each category. The Board chooses the winner.

All entries should include a cover letter of two pages or less describing the work, how its subject came to light and what obstacles were overcome in doing it. When relevant, please also explain what makes the work distinctive and which techniques were employed to produce it. Where appropriate, describe the work’s impact and how it differs from similar efforts on the subject. If there have been significant challenges to the honesty, fairness or accuracy of the entry, please disclose them and show how they were addressed.

The Board welcomes a full range of journalistic tools – such as text articles, interactive graphics, blogs, databases, video and other forms of multimedia – in 12 of its 14 categories. When possible in the reporting categories, entrants should take advantage of journalistic techniques such as data visualization and creative uses of social media. The two photography categories are restricted to still images, which must be submitted as digital files.

In recent years the Board has amended eligibility rules in response to changes in the way news is delivered. Its purpose is to ensure that the Pulitzer competition considers and rewards the best journalism published during the year. Last year, the Board opened Investigative Reporting and Feature Writing to most magazines and their websites. Three additional categories – International Reporting, Criticism and Editorial Cartooning – are open this year.

Only magazines and their websites that adhere to the highest journalism principles and publish at least weekly are qualified to enter. Magazines that publish a print edition less frequently than weekly are eligible if their websites publish news content daily or at least weekly. To a maximum of three per category, entries in the five eligible categories may come from either the eligible magazine’s print edition, its website or a combination of the two.

The Board allows partnerships between Pulitzer-eligible and ineligible organizations. Work by such partnerships can win the Pulitzer Prize only when the eligible organization does the preponderance of the work. Except for the Public Service prize, Pulitzer Prizes in journalism go to individuals or staffs, not nominating organizations. The Pulitzer Prize Board believes the journalists who did the most significant work on a winning project should be named, up to a total of five staff members, whether they worked for the eligible or the ineligible partner.

The Board invites greater participation in the Editorial Writing and Breaking News categories. Editorial entries do not need to be part of a campaign. The Board welcomes a portfolio of editorials dealing with one subject or several – in effect, a body of work. The main test is whether the editorials exert enough influence and moral purpose to make them memorable, persuasive and pivotal to public debate.

In Breaking News, the Board seeks a balance under deadline pressure. An entry should demonstrate how quickly and accurately a news organization used all available journalistic tools to cover the story, with emphasis on real-time reporting. Entries may also include subsequent coverage that, within days, puts an event in perspective and provides context. In the cover letter entries should include a timeline or supplemental material detailing the chronology of events and the timing of items in the entry.

***

When you visit the entry site, you will find rules and step-by-step guidance on how to submit. We urge you to read the Plan of Award; the journalism guidelines, which contains frequently asked questions; and the technical requirements. This material can be found at www.pulitzer.org, under "How to enter." Here are some key things to remember:

 

  • Stories and other text must be uploaded as PDFs. Each story should be uploaded as a separate PDF. PDFs should be no larger than 8½ x 14 inches, type size 12 pt. and text one or two columns wide, single spaced. To show the original display of the material, you may use the first page of the PDF to frame or highlight an entered article on its published page.
  • Text material from online news sites should not be submitted as URLs but should also be formatted and submitted as PDFs.
  • Supplemental information should be kept to a minimum because of the burden on jurors. It should be uploaded as a PDF. If more than one page, the PDFs should be combined and uploaded as a single file. See technical requirements.
  • Video should be uploaded to the entry site via URLs. See technical requirements. Any pre-roll advertising should be removed.
  • A limit of 20 images is imposed on an audio slide show or photo gallery.
  • To facilitate juror access, entrants should place URLs outside any pay wall. If that proves infeasible, the entry should contain a simple username and password for jurors, plainly indicated in the label for that URL.
  • URLs should remain active until the prizes are announced next April.
  • No more than three entries may be made by the editors of a single newspaper, wire service, syndicate or other eligible news site in any one category. The term "editors" includes all titled editors. Individuals may submit entries on their own behalf but they must be clearly distinguishable from a news organization’s entry and include separate payment of an entry fee.
  • The same content may be entered in no more than two categories. If you choose to file the same material in two categories, you must submit duplicate entries, one for each category, and pay a separate entry fee. We discourage cross-filing when an entry falls only marginally into a second category. This caution applies especially to Explanatory Reporting, where the emphasis is on putting a significant and complex subject in context and where our guidelines state: “The jury will disregard an investigative, enterprise or feature story or series that falls short of the explanatory test.” Similar advice applies to Local Reporting, which is not intended to be a second Investigative Reporting category but rather one honoring expert exploration of local issues.
  • Up to five individuals may be named on a team entry; they should be the strongest contributors to the work. Their photos and bios should be submitted.
  • If an entry involves more than five individuals, it should be submitted in the name of the staff, and photos and bios should not be submitted. Entries in the Public Service category, regardless of the number of people involved, must be made in the name of the newspaper or news site.
  • On the electronic entry form -- and this is important -- be sure to include a one-sentence description of the submitted work’s subject matter.

 

Final tips: Submit your entry well before the Jan. 25 deadline to avoid the rush and minimize the chance of slow uploads. If you have questions about the categories or rules, please don’t hesitate to call this office. Best of luck.

Mike Pride
Administrator
The Pulitzer Prizes
212-854-3841 / [email protected]