VandeHei, who is also Politico’s executive editor, is “the first representative of a primarily online news organization” to serve on the board, the Pulitzer committee said today. But he also has a print background. Before founding the Washington, D.C.-based site in 2007 with John F. Harris and Allbritton Communications, he worked for Roll Call and The Wall Street Journal — among other D.C. pubs — covering Capitol Hill.

It will be interesting to see if this new focus on online news will lead to Pultizers for online writers next year. Seems like they have a better chance now than ever before.

Previously: Online Writers Now Have Greater Shot Of Winning Pulitzer, Four Questions For Politico’s Jim VandeHei

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“We took down our signage that’s up over there at the Press Club and declined to participate in any way,” Harris said. He said Politico was not “in the business of sponsoring, or co-sponsoring, an off-the-record talk with a newsworthy person.”

Donna Leinwand, president of the National Press Club, also voiced her “strong opposition” to Plouffe’s decision in a letter to the Washington Speakers Bureau, which serves as his agent.

All valid points, though one has to wonder in this age of Twitter whether anything in a public sphere can really be considered off-the-record.

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