When the Pulitzer board handed out the most important prizes in journalism, The New York Times and The Washington Post topped the list of winners - and finalists — as usual. But they were joined for the first time by a trio of new media publications that scored unprecedented recognition in a competition long dominated by newspapers. Last week, judges awarded the nonprofit ProPublica, in collaboration with The New York Times Magazine, a Pulitzer in investigative reporting for a 13,000-word story on the life-and-death decisions made by New Orleans doctors during Hurricane Katrina. ProPublica is bankrolled by charitable foundations, staffed by veteran journalists, and devoted to doing the kind of investigative journalism projects many newspapers have found too expensive. It offers many of its stories to traditional news organizations, free of charge. Also representing a new model was the prize for editorial cartooning, which was won by the self-syndicated Mark Fiore. His work appears on the San Francisco Chronicle Web site SFGate.com. Matt Wuerker of Politico was a finalist for the cartooning award. The Pulitzers are regarded as the most prestigious awards in US journalism and are given out annually by Columbia University on the recommendation of a board of distinguished journalists and others. Each Pulitzer carries a $10,000 prize, except for the public service award, which is a gold medal. The Bristol Herald Courier, a small paper in the coalfields of Appalachia, beat out journalism's powerhouses to win the Pulitzer Prize for public service for uncovering a scandal in which Virginia landowners were deprived of millions in natural gas royalties. The Washington Post received four Pulitzers — for international reporting on Iraq, feature writing, commentary and criticism. The New York Times won three — for national reporting, for explanatory reporting and for investigative reporting. The paper collaborated with ProPublica on the Hurricane Katrina story which was published in the magazine. The Pulitzer Board also recognized the way newspapers are branching out with new media. The Seattle Times employed Twitter and e-mail alerts to help inform readers about a deadly shooting, and used the social media tool Google Wave to encourage reader participation. The Des Moines Register won for breaking-news photography for capturing a rescuer trying to save a woman trapped beneath a dam, and the Denver Post was honored for feature photography for a portrait of a teenager who joined the Army at the height of insurgent violence in Iraq. Paul Harding's “Tinkers,” a debut novel released by the tiny Bellevue Literary Press, was the surprise fiction winner. A narrative about a 19th-century financial lord, T.J. Stiles' “The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt,” was the biography winner. Another timely book, “The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy,” by David E. Hoffman, won for general nonfiction. A book about the financial crisis, Liaquat Ahamed's “Lords of Finance: The Bankers Who Broke the World,” won for history.
