Pulitzer honours online news along with old media standouts

SAN FRANCISCO - The Washington Post and New York Times dominated the annual Pulitzer Prizes, but the most prestigious awards body in US journalism also gave its first ever prizes to online media.

Propublica, a non-profit online news organization, Monday won a Pulitzer for investigative reporting for its report on New Orleans hospitals after Hurricane Katrina, while the editorial cartooning prize went to the animated cartoons of the website SFGate.com.

While recognizing the growing influence and quality of online news organisations, the Pulitzers snubbed The National Enquirer, which had been widely tipped to be the first ever scandal magazine to win the prize for exposing the affair of former presidential candidate John Edwards.

The Washington Post won awards for international reporting, commentary, criticism and feature writing. The New York Times won for national reporting and explanatory reporting.

The Pulitzer Prizes named rock musical Next to Normal as the best drama, while Tinkers, a debut novel by Paul Harding, was named the year’s best novel.

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by TJ Stiles, won the biography prize, and Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World, by Liaquat Ahamed, won the prize for for history.

The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy, by David Hoffman, won the prize for general non-fiction; Versed by Rae Armantrout won for poetry and Violin Concerto by Jennifer Higdon won the music prize.