Not so long ago it was unthinkable that a blogger would ever be mentioned in the same sentence with the literary and journalistic giants of the last century – but with the Pulitzer Prize Board’s decision to include “online-only” publications in all 14 journalism categories, the idea no longer seems so outlandish.

In discussing the decision, Sig Gissler, Administer of the Pulitzer Prizes, said “We continue to keep an eye on the changing media scene and try to make appropriate adjustments as we go along…There’s an evolutionary aspect to the Pulitzer Prizes going back through history…We added photography in 1943…we added explanatory journalism… and we started allowing online content as early as 1999.”

While we’ve written at great length about the emergence of bloggers as a significant media force in the 21st Century, the Pulitzer Board’s decision serves as an index of yet another sea change. What this decision says about the future of investigative journalism is important to note as well. As rampant cuts have squeezed budgets at traditional newspapers to their breaking point, bloggers are picking up where the ink barrels have gone dry.

Ever since the days of the “Internet’s First Scalp” – which was how New York Post columnist John Podhoretz characterized the ousting of Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott after a blogger reported his racially insensitive comments at a Strom Thurmond birthday celebration – bloggers have made their mark breaking stories for the traditional media.

Now, the Pulitzer decision proves the ascendancy of bloggers from gossipy “sources” to the ranks of aggressive journalists – and Pulitzer winners – like Seymour Hersh.

It was bloggers who debunked documents used by “60 Minutes” in a report about President Bush’s National Guard service. It was bloggers who uncovered the fact that Oprah Book Club author James Frey had made up most of his best-selling work of “non-fiction,” A Million Little Pieces. It was bloggers who helped expose the U.S. attorneys firing scandal, which led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And it was a blogger who first put President Elect-Obama’s comments about “guns and religion” on the national radar screen.

It is therefore already difficult to deny bloggers a title shot at journalism’s most coveted prize, especially as over 70% of traditional reporters and editors now rely on the blogosphere for ideas and sources. There will be more and more Internet scalps every year. Expect more than one of those online hombres to make literary history.