FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Megan Mulligan, [email protected] or 212-854-3841
New York, NY (Dec. 23, 2020) — The 2021 Pulitzer Prize competition in journalism is currently accepting submissions. The 2021 prize cycle recognizes work published in the 2020 calendar year. All entries must be received by the January 25 deadline; a full list of all 15 journalism prize categories is available here.
For 2021, the number of items that may be included in each entry has changed. In the Public Service, Feature Photography, Breaking News Photography and Editorial Cartooning categories, the maximum number of items that can be included is now 15; for other prize categories, a maximum seven items will be allowed per entry. Feature Writing will continue to allow a total of five items per entry. Audio Reporting entries may not exceed a total of five hours of recorded material. Additional materials may be included as supplemental files. The newly revised guidelines reflect an adaptation to the increase in complex web entries, and is designed to facilitate jurors’ and board members’ ability to navigate and evaluate submitted works.
Category definitions of Editorial Cartooning and Local Reporting have been updated this year.
The Editorial Cartooning prize category will recognize “a distinguished portfolio of editorial cartoons or other illustrated work (still, animated, or both) characterized by political insight, editorial effectiveness, or public service value.” For a list of all past prize winners and finalists in Editorial Cartooning, click here.
The Local Reporting prize category will recognize “a distinguished example of coverage of significant issues of local or statewide concern, demonstrating originality and community connection, using any available journalistic tool.” For a list of all past winners and finalists in Local Reporting, click here.
“The changes in entry rules we're announcing today are aimed at accomplishing three goals. First, we want to encourage news organizations on the frontlines of preserving local journalism to include sustained local or statewide coverage in their consideration of what to enter.
“Second, we have broadened the Cartoon category to encompass animated commentary.
“Finally, to give juries and the Board the time to focus closely on the expanding breadth of digital entries, we are reducing the number of items that can be entered in each category. The new limits are spelled out in the FAQs,” said Board co-chairs Stephen Engelberg, editor-in-chief of ProPublica, and Aminda Marqués González, vice president and executive editor at Simon & Schuster's adult trade publishing imprint.
Details on How to Enter are available here.
A list of FAQs is available here.
The Pulitzer Prize Board chooses the winners of the Prizes in journalism, books, drama and music each April. Board members serve a maximum of nine years in three-year terms.
The Pulitzer Prizes were established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher, who left money to Columbia University upon his death in 1911. A portion of his bequest was used to found the School of Journalism in 1912 and establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917. The 19-member Pulitzer Board is composed mainly of leading journalists or news executives from media outlets across the U.S., as well as five academics or persons in the arts. The dean of Columbia's journalism school and the administrator of the prizes are nonvoting members. The chair rotates annually to the most senior member or members. The board is self-perpetuating in the election of members. Voting members may serve three terms of three years for a total of nine years.
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