daniel prazer

So Jim VandeHei, executive editor of Politoco, has been named to a term on the Pulitzer board, which is great news for the top prize in journalism.

There’s been some huffing and puffing about online journalism being included alongside traditional print organizations for the Pultizers, and rightly so. Bloggers who fancy themselves investigative reporters, lacking any editorial oversight or journalism training, certainly aren’t on par with the Boston Globe, which spent years and millions of dollars investigating the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal. And blogs that merely aggregate real reporting and add a paragraph of commentary certainly aren’t on the same level—there’s no way I’d expect to be eligible for a Pulitzer for this post.

That said, Politico is a great step in the right direction. With papers closing their doors (or in precarious financial states) around the country—the shuttering of the print editions of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Rocky Mountain News come to mind—adding Politico to the Pulitzer board makes sense. It cranks out a daily print issue in D.C., but only while congress is in session. Its bread and butter is its amazing Web site and original reporting. After just a few years, it has the clout to pull in heavy-hitting politicians and, well, politicos as guest writers from all spectrums.

Now, if only we can get papers like the Boston Globe to see this business model makes sense, maybe it’ll stop bleeding $1 million a week.