MEDIA CONTACT: Wendy Leopold at (847) 491-4890 or w-leopold@northwestern.edu

October 28, 2003

Medill Grant Focuses on Working Journalists

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism has been awarded a $1.9 million grant over four years from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to increase both the news industry’s financial investment in journalism training and the amount of training, education, and professional development that actually is offered to journalists around the country.

The grant to Northwestern University is part of the Knight Foundation’s $10 million Newsroom Training Initiative. That initiative grew out of a Knight Foundation study that found that eight in 10 journalists say they need more professional development and that nine in 10 news executives agree.

Medill’s part in the Knight initiative is “Tomorrow’s Workforce,” a project that will develop workforce diagnostics and measurements to help newsrooms determine what kind of training they require and track the ways that they meet those needs.

Michele McLellan, a former editor at The (Portland) Oregonian, is director of “Tomorrow’s Workforce,” based at Medill. She also is co-author of the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Newspaper Credibility Handbook.

“The Knight Foundation grant makes it possible for Medill to be at the center of change in the training nationwide of journalists of all ages, which complements the school’s mid-career training initiatives in the reporting of religion, law and business,” said Loren Ghiglione, Medill. dean.

Medill began moving into mid-career training three years ago when it launched a specialized program in religion, spirituality and ethics. That program gave qualified graduate students and mid-career professionals a unique fellowship opportunity designed to increase their knowledge of religious issues and apply that knowledge to their reporting. Working journalists who participated praised the program as an extraordinarily valuable opportunity.

Medill launched two additional specialized master’s programs for qualified graduate students and working journalists this past summer, one in law reporting and the other in business and economics reporting. Both drew applicants from the ranks of working journalists with on average between 5 and 10 years of experience.