David Woods of the Huffington Post Receives the First Pulitzer Prize Awarded to an Internet-Only Publication

Columbia University announced that the 96th annual Pulitzer Prize "For a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs, using any available journalistic tool" was awarded to Huffington Post reporter David Wood "for his riveting exploration of the physical and emotional challenges facing American soldiers severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan during a decade of war."

Wood's series, Beyond the Battlefield, was characterized by the Huffington Post as "an exploration of the physical and emotional challenges, victories and setbacks that catastrophically wounded soldiers encounter after returning home."

"In recent years, the Pulitzer board has bestowed honors on newer outlets, such as ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that often teams up with established news organizations, and PolitiFact, a project of the Tampa Bay Times. Politico, a five-year-old newspaper and web site, took home its first Pulitzer prize Monday for Matt Wuerker's editorial cartoons. Still, a win in national reporting by an online-only news site is a departure from the typical list of legacy news outlets who clean up at the Pulitzers year after year" (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/huffington-post-pulitzer-prize-2012_n_1429169.html, accessed 04-18-2012).