The 2012 Pulitzer Prizes honoring achievements in journalism, literature and the arts were announced Monday afternoon at Columbia University, with the most prestigious award, for public service, going to The Philadelphia Inquirer for a moving series on violence in that city’s public schools.
The Huffington Post also picked up its first-ever Pulitzer, with the seven-year-old site’s military correspondent David Wood winning the National Reporting prize for his 10-part series “Beyond the Battlefield,” which explored the lingering effects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on a generation of young veterans.
In a statement released on the site, Arianna Huffington took a victory lap for Wood’s win: “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.”
The Huffington Post’s win continues a trend of primarily digital publications winning Pulitzers. The nonprofit investigative service ProPublica, which often partners with print or broadcast media, won in 2010 and 2011. Similarly, Politico won its first Pulitzer today with Matt Wuerker winning for editorial cartooning.
A bit farther afield, but certainly of note to the large concentration of Penn State alumni living in the D.C. area, Sara Ganim of The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. became the second-youngest Pulitzer winner for her continuous coverage of the child abuse allegations against former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. Ganim, 24, won the Local Reporting prize for being the first reporter to break the news that a grand jury was investigating Sandusky, a scandal that eventually brought down much of Penn State’s athletic and academic leadership.
The Washington Post’s Philip Kennicott was a finalist for the Criticism award, which went to Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris.
See the full list of winners from the Pulitzer Prize Board below, and read more coverage of the awards on Gothamist.
