New York journalism schools to get $8m in innovation grants
CUNY and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to share the money
– 1 min read
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American Philanthropist Leonard Tow has bestowed grants totalling $8 million (£4m) on the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism ( CUNY ) and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism to build centres for the development of new forms of journalism.
Former newspaper executive Tow, through his foundation , will provide CUNY with a $3 million challenge grant to establish the Tow Center for Journalistic Innovation, which will study new business models for journalism and create an incubator to help develop new journalistic products and services using Internet technologies.
CUNY will be required to itself raise $3 million in matching funds.
The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism will receive a $5 million challenge grant for curriculum development and new faculty for teaching interactive journalism.
Columbia will be required to raise another $10 million on a two-for-one matching basis.
"I have become increasingly worried that the quality of mainstream journalism will decline before the transition is made to the new media formats," says Leonard Tow.
"We want to help speed the process of evolution and help prepare the next generation of journalists for a new media environment. These two schools offer different approaches and I am confident that the work of the two centers will be complementary."
The Tow center for Journalistic Innovation at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism will build on courses already offered at the School, including "Entrepreneurial Journalism," that encourage students to create new journalistic products and services and develop business plans for them.
"Universities often do R&D for industry," added Stephen B Shepard, Dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and former editor of BusinessWeek.
"There's no reason journalism schools can't do the same for our profession."
Written by
Laura Oliver is a freelance journalist, a contributor to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, co-founder of The Society of Freelance Journalists and the former editor of Journalism.co.uk (prior to it becoming JournalismUK)
