Paging Ira Glass! Pulitzer Prizes Add Podcast Category

The Audio Recording prize is the first new category for the Pulitzers since 2007

Hey podcasters, recognition for your fledgling program just got a whole lot more interesting. The Pulitzer Prize Board announced on Thursday that the organization was adding a new category for podcasting for its 2020 prize cycle. The Audio Recording prize is the first new category for the Pulitzers since 2007.

However, if you think your sitdown show should be considered, there is a catch. The podcast must, in the words of the board, be in audio reporting. So if you thought your sketch show or variety program would get a coveted award from the Pulitzer Board, sorry. And if you were a foreign podcast that wanted to be considered, well, not for this one. Non-U.S. outlets are ineligible for consideration.

The prize will be awarded “For a distinguished example of audio journalism that serves the public interest, characterized by revelatory reporting and illuminating storytelling,’” the board said.

“The renaissance of audio journalism in recent years has given rise to an extraordinary array of non-fiction storytelling. To recognize the best of that work, the Pulitzer Board is launching an experimental category to honor it,” Pulitzer administrator Dana Canedy said.

The entries should include investigative reporting that exposes wrongdoing to dynamic features, and news coverage of major issues or events.

Submissions will begin on Dec. 16, 2019, and the deadline for all submissions is Jan. 24, 2020 at 5 p.m. ET. Audio entries must be submitted without preroll advertising.

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 to establish the Pulitzer Prizes, which were first awarded in 1917.

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