When the entry site for the 2017 Pulitzer Prizes in journalism opens in December, entrants will no longer be required to write entry letters. Entrants will instead be expected to answer questions tailored for each category. (For a sneak preview of all the questions, see below.)
The Pulitzer Prize Board has instituted this change in an effort to elicit similar vital information from all entrants in each category. The question form will give entrants ample space to answer, but please be succinct where possible. Although it should rarely happened that an answer requires more space than the form allows, in such cases the entrant may mark the answer “See supplementary material” and answer the question there. For example, it is conceivable that this could happen in Breaking News, where one question asks the entrant for a timeline of the breaking story.
Although questionnaires in some categories are short and simple, entrants in most categories will be asked to report:
- How the subject of the entered work came to light.
- What obstacles were overcome in doing the work.
- Which innovative techniques, if any, were used in doing the work.
- How the work is distinguished from other work on the same subject.
- What impact the work had.
- Whether there were significant challenges to the work’s accuracy and fairness and, if so, how the entrant responded.
If a question is not applicable to an entry, the entrant is free to say so by responding N/A in the answer box or giving a brief explanation why. If you leave an answer box empty, the digital judging system will not allow you to submit your entry.
Other aspects of the journalism entry process are unchanged. The site will still require photos and brief biographies of the journalists entered. As in the past, the limit on named entrants is five except in Public Service, where the prize goes not to individuals but to the winning publication. If more than five journalists contributed significantly to an entered project, it should be labeled a staff entry.
Our aims in switching to a Q&A format is to make entering easier, to gather relevant information about entries, and to level the playing field. The Pulitzer Prize Board welcomes entries from print and digital news organizations, including magazines, which are eligible in all categories for the first time this year.