For the first time in its 53 year history, the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting has gone to a web-based news organisation. From the first award presented in 1917, the prizes are now awarded annually in 21 categories and are considered the highest accolade of American journalism.

ProPublica, the internet investigative news organisation, won the award for a series of articles titled 'The Wall Street Money Machine'. The Pulitzer awarding body praised the group and its series - produced in collaboration with NPR - "for their exposure of questionable practices on Wall Street that contributed to the nation's economic meltdown, using digital tools to help explain the complex subject to lay readers"

The journalists Jesse Eisinger and Jake Bernstein will receive $10,000 in prize money.

ProPublica's editor-in-chief and former editor of the Wall Street Journal, Paul Steiger, said the organisation was "delighted and deeply honoured by this award". He added: "This year's prize is the first for a group of stories not published in print."

Other big Pulitzer winners this year include the Los Angeles Times for public service, the New York Times for international reporting and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune for investigative journalism.