London, Dec 9 The Pulitzer Prize, an American award that is regarded as the most prestigious journalism award, is expanding its list to include online-only publications also.

The Pulitzer Prize Board that oversees the awards has revealed that in the list for the 2009 prizes, which will be announced in April, "text-based newspapers and news organisations that publish only on the Internet", will also be included.

In a statement issued by the Board, it said that it had "decided to allow entries made up entirely of online content to be submitted in all 14 Pulitzer journalism categories."

Sig Gissler, administrator of the prizes, said that the move was a "logical extension of the historic mission of the Pulitzer Prizes."

"We continue to keep an eye on the changing media scene and try to make appropriate adjustments as we go along," the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

"There's an evolutionary aspect to the Pulitzer Prizes going back through history.

"We added photography in 1943, for example, and we added explanatory journalism, and we started allowing online content as early as 1999," he said.

The Board said that online or print entries should come from US newspapers or news organisations that publish at least weekly and are "primarily dedicated to original news reporting and coverage of ongoing stories."

The deadline for entries in the 2009 competition is February 1. (ANI)