NEW YORK, NY April 20, 2009 —When Columbia University announces the winners of the 2009 Pulitzer Prizes later today, online news organizations may be among the recipients of what many consider the highest honor in American print journalism.

REPORTER: For the first time, the prizes will include Web sites that produce original news reporting.

Sig Gissler is the administrator of the Prizes. He says the Pulitzer Board will continue to "monitor the impact of the Internet."

GISSLER: The Pulitzer Prizes are a living organism, and we take into account what's happening in the world of journalism, in the world of the news media, and we'll, I'm sure, continue to do that.

REPORTER: But some of the biggest names in the online business -- like Salon, Slate, and Talking Points Memo -- did not apply because the editors there did not know they qualified.