Sixty years ago today (May 7, 1962), the Pulitzer Prize advisory board announced that the organization would not add a new awards category for magazines, according to a United Press International account. The group said it believed that "the magazine field is adequately represented by its own prizes." The decision came in response to a request from the Society of Magazine Writers, now known as the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Undeterred by rejection, a useful trait for magazine writers then and now, the society made another plea in December of that year, with a petition signed by 40 editors and 18 Pulitzer Prize winners. Again, it seems to have been rebuffed.
The Pulitzer board has since rethought the matter, opening two of its journalism categories to magazines in 2015 and the rest of them the following year. This year's finalists and winners will be announced on May 9.
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