We've come a long way, baby! This is good news for so many of the great websites doing good work today:

NEW YORK For the first time, the Pulitzer Prizes will accept submissions from online-only news outlets, but require that they be "text-based" submissions from news organizations that are updated at least weekly and include original reporting.

Pulitzer Administrator Sig Gissler told E&P that "we are expanding the Pulitzers to include many text-based newspapers and news organizations that publish only on the Internet." At the same time, they are "stressing" that all entered material should come from news outlets that publish material at least weekly, "are primarily dedicated to original news reporting, are dedicated to coverage of ongoing stories and that adhere to the highest journalistic principles."

Gissler said the change, to take effect with the upcoming 2009 prizes, is occurring as part of the prizes' effort to "keep up with the changing media landscape."

Asked, for example, if a news outlet such as Huffington Post -- which is a mix of personal blogs, link aggregation and original reporting -- would be eligible, he declined to comment saying he did not want to discuss any individual outlet.

Gissler stressed that Web sites of magazines and broadcast and cable outlets will not be eligible because they are primarily part of news outlets that are not connected to newspapers. Also, sites that call themselves online "magazines" would be ineligible (this might pertain to Slate and Salon).