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Updated post
Whoa, talk about a new era at the Pulitzers. The Huffington Post just won its first Pulitzer Prize, in the national reporting category for David Wood's 10-part series on the lives of severely wounded veterans and their families. Before joining the Huffington Post as senior military correspondent, Wood had been Time magazine's Nairobi bureau chief and a writer for the Washington Star, Los Angeles Times, Newhouse News Service, Baltimore Sun and AOL's PoliticsDaily. He is a previous Pulitzer finalist.
From the Huff Post:
Huffington Post senior military correspondent David Wood has spent decades covering war, watching as wounded combat troops are loaded onto medical evacuation helicopters and, he said, "go off in a cloud of dust." But after their sacrifice on the battlefield, Wood said, "you never know what happened to them."So for eight months this past year, Wood reported extensively on the lives of severely wounded veterans and their families in "Beyond the Battlefield", a 10-part series awarded Monday with the Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting. Wood's Pulitzer marks the first win for the seven-year-old Huffington Post and a milestone in the influential Pulitzer committee's recognition of online-only news organizations.
"We are delighted and deeply honored by the award, which recognizes both David’s exemplary piece of purposeful journalism and HuffPost's commitment to original reporting that affects both the national conversation and the lives of real people," said Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group. "From the beginning, one of the core pillars of HuffPost’s editorial philosophy has been to use narrative and storytelling to put flesh and blood on data and statistics, and to help bear witness to the struggles faced by millions of Americans.
Matt Wuerker of Politico added another win for online media, for editorial cartooning. He is from Los Angeles and lives now in the Washington, D.C. area.
Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times won in international reporting. He is a former Los Angeles Times reporter.
Winners and finalists at Pulitzer.org
Winners from the New York Times story:
JOURNALISM
PUBLIC SERVICE: The Philadelphia Inquirer
BREAKING NEWS REPORTING: The Tuscaloosa (Ala.) News Staff
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING: Matt Apuzzo, Adam Goldman, Eileen Sullivan and Chris Hawley of The Associated Press and Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times
EXPLANATORY REPORTING: David Kocieniewski of The New York Times
LOCAL REPORTING: Sara Ganim and members of The Patriot-News Staff, Harrisburg, Pa.
NATIONAL REPORTING: David Wood of The Huffington Post
INTERNATIONAL REPORTING: Jeffrey Gettleman of The New York Times
FEATURE WRITING: Eli Sanders of The Stranger, a Seattle weekly
COMMENTARY: Mary Schmich of The Chicago Tribune
CRITICISM: Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe
EDITORIAL WRITING: No award
EDITORIAL CARTOONING: Matt Wuerker of Politico
BREAKING NEWS PHOTOGRAPHY: Massoud Hossaini of Agence France-Presse
FEATURE PHOTOGRAPHY: Craig F. Walker of The Denver Post
LETTERS AND DRAMA
FICTION: No award
DRAMA: “Water by the Spoonful” by Quiara Alegría Hudes
HISTORY: “Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention” by Manning Marable, awarded posthumously (Viking)
BIOGRAPHY: “George F. Kennan: An American Life” by John Lewis Gaddis (The Penguin Press)
POETRY: “Life on Mars” by Tracy K. Smith (Graywolf Press)
GENERAL NONFICTION: “The Swerve: How the World Became Modern” by Stephen Greenblatt (W. W. Norton and Company)
MUSIC: “Silent Night: Opera in Two Acts” by Kevin Puts, commissioned and premiered by the Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis on Nov. 12, 2011.
