Members of the New York Daily News Editorial Board (L-R) Heidi Evans, Errol Louis, Karen Zautyk, Bev Weintraub, Editorial Page Editor Arthur Browne, Jay Maeder, Chairman & Publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman, Editor-in-Chief Martin Dunn and Michael Aronson pose for a photograph after winning the Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in New York April 16, 2007. (Xinhua Photo)

The 2007 Pulitzer prize winners were announced here on Monday, with the Wall Street Journal getting a gold medal for public service for its coverage of backdated stock options for business executives.

The Wall Street Journal was commended for its "creative and comprehensive probe... that triggered investigations, the ouster of top officials and widespread change of corporate America," the Pulitzer Board said on its website. The paper also won a prize for international reporting.

The prize for breaking news reporting went to Oregonian, Portland, for its "skillful and tenacious coverage" of a family missing in the Oregon mountains, telling the tragic story both in print and online.

The Pulitzer Board announced last November that a full array of online materials, such as databases, interactive graphics, and streaming video, may be submitted for consideration in nearly all of its journalism categories.

Brett Blackledge, of Birmingham News in Alaska, won the Pulitzer for investigative reporting. He was commended for his "exposure of cronyism and corruption in the state's two-year college system."

The prize for explanatory reporting was awarded to Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling and Rick Loomis of Los Angeles Times for their "richly portrayed reports on the world's distressed oceans."

Debbie Cenziper of Miami Herald won the Pulitzer for local reporting for her reports on the Miami housing agency's waste, favoritism and lack of oversight. Her reports led to dismissals, investigations and prosecutions.

Charlie Savage, of Boston Globe, was awarded the prize for national reporting for his "revelations that President (George W.)Bush often used 'signing statements' to assert his controversial right to bypass provisions of new laws."

Andrea Elliott of New York Times won the prize for feature writing and Cynthia Tucker of Atlanta Journal-Constitution the prize for commentary.

The Pulitzers for criticism, editorial writing, and editorial cartooning was also announced by the Columbian School of Journalism, which administers the prizes.

The prize for breaking news photography went to Oded Balilty of The Associated Press for his "powerful photograph of a lone Jewish woman defying Israeli security forces as they remove illegal settlers in the West Bank."

Renee C. Byer of Sacramento Bee won the Pulitzer for feature photography for her "intimate portrayal of a single mother and her young son as he loses his battle with cancer."

The prize for fiction went to "The Road," written by Cormac McCarthy; for drama, to "Rabbit Hole," by David Lindsay-Abaire; for history, to "The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation," written by Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff.

Debby Applegate, author of "The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher," won the prize for biography or autobiography. Natasha Trethewey's "Native Guard" was awarded the prize for poetry.

Lawrence Wright, winner of the prize for general non-fiction, was commended for "The Looming Tower, Al-Qaida and the Road to 9/11."

Ornette Coleman took the music prize for "Sound Grammar."

The Pulitzer Prize is regarded as the highest national honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical composition in the United States. It is administered by Columbia University in New York City.

Prizes are awarded annually in 21 categories. Winners of the prize for public service get a gold medal and those in the other 20 categories receive a certificate and a 10,000 U.S. dollars award.

The prize was established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher. The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded in 1917.

Editor: Yan