Inside Story - Fall 2009 by CUNY J-School

INSIDESTORY

C U N Y G R A D U AT E S C H O O L O F J O U R N A L I S M • T H E C I T Y U N I V E R S I T Y O F N E W Y O R K • FA L L 2 0 0 9 • W W W. J O U R N A L I S M . C U N Y. E D U

Summer Internships in the Students’ Own Words

ROM MANHATTAN to Moscow, students at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism continued to break new ground with their summer internship experiences. This past summer, students from the Class of 2009 forged relationships with new internship partners, including Al Jazeera English and WRXP-FM in New York, WKBW-TV in Buffalo, The Times of India in Mumbai, Reuters in Brussels, and the Associated Press in Moscow. They also worked with familiar employers such as NBC Local Integrated Media, The New York Times, and WNYC radio. “Employers continue to compliment our students on their work,” said William Chang, the J-School’s director of career services. “I’m already looking forward to seeing where the next class will land internships.” The paid summer internship program is a unique feature of the CUNY J-School. As part of the curriculum, all students work as interns for professional media organizations between the second and third semesters. The practical work experience is its own reward, and it becomes a huge plus when new graduates make their way into the job market. But the School makes the deal even sweeter by guaranteeing all interns are paid at least $3,000 for 10 or 12 weeks of labor. Twice during the summer, students are required to file reports with the J-School on their internship adventures. What follows are excerpts from some of the Class of ‘09 reports.

Aisha Al-Muslim, WKBW-TV, Buffalo

IN THIS ISSUE

T SEVERAL MEDIA CONVENTIONS I attended, journalists warned that their business was changing. I could see some of the signs during my summer internship at WKBW-TV in Buffalo. On a Sunday night, only a director of operations and a producer were in the control room. I expected at least eight people like I saw at my internship at WABC-TV in New York City. At WKBW, the director preprogrammed the camera shots and was in charge of operating the cameras during the show. But it wasn’t always like that. Management had made the decision to cut production jobs in order to reduce spending. That same night, what was supposed to be the 11 o’clock news was pre-taped because management was concerned that if Aisha Al-Muslim an NBA Finals reports for Channel 7 game went into in Buffalo. overtime, they would have to pay employees overtime. I learned that the radio scanners are one way the assignment editors decide what should be covered. On the first day of my internship, a message came on the scanner about a “Mercy Flight.” I was told it meant that a serious accident just occurred because a Mercy Flight is called when an emergency involves a head injury. Another time a message came over the scanner about a bank robbery at a KeyBank in Williamsville, a wealthy neigh-

• Dean’s Corner

• Commencement Speaker

Nicholas Martinez borhood in the greater Buffalo area. A worked with the reporter and a photographer were sent out pros at NBC News. and I tagged along. We listened to the scanner as we drove to the location of the robbery to find out who the police were looking for, descripNicholas C. Martinez, NBC News, New York tions of the armed gunman, and the status of locating him. I found that being able to listen to over 10 scanners going Y EXPERIENCES at NBC ranged from the munoff at the same time could be an asset to any station. Most dane to the exciting: from logging b-roll for a story people in the newsroom can’t decipher the messages sent over on a cancer research to chasing down flight attenthe radio. If I learned to do it as a reporter, I would be a dants at Newark Airport all the while streaming live video tremendous help back to the WNBC control room. to any assignI covered former President George H.W. Bush’s ritual birthment editor. day skydive, pitched stories to NBC Nightly News, WNBC, I have learned and the Today Show, and even bumped into Late Night’s over time that Jimmy Fallon in the NBC hallways - literally. newsrooms all What will I remember most? Well, I had a chance to lunch over the country with a Nightly News correspondent at a Friendly’s in make different Connecticut - and he paid the bill. ethical decisions. Here's the story: Ron Allen pitched a story about Muslim At the station Americans' reactions to President Obama's speech in Cairo in where I interned, June. I was asked to help him research mosques in Newark, NJ. Facebook and He found a Muslim family in Connecticut who produced Myspace were religious sensitivity and awareness videos for law enforcement used only to and medical institutions nationwide. Since I helped them do help locate a research on the couple and log video for snappy quotes, he and subject, but his producer Carla Marcus brought me along to Hartford as information or Ron worked his magic: He interviewed the couple in their pictures accessihome and shadowed them as they attended Friday prayers at ble on the page their local mosque. were not used in It was a day of firsts for me: I ended up taking the first yelany story. I think low taxicab ride of my life. I attended my first Muslim prayer this is a smart service (shoeless I might add,) and I had a look at the behindand precautionary decision because anyone can be whoever the-scenes work that went into producing a Nightly News spot. he or she wants to be online. When I went out in the field The story turned out great (it aired on the Weekend with a crew, I learned that you should not shoot on private Nightly News) and I had a chance to pick the brain of a very property without permission, unless it is a shot of the door accomplished reporter and producer. He answered all of my knocker. Also it is best to avoid shooting license plates because questions and gave me valuable insight into the world of a they can identify people who might not be relevant. traveling foreign correspondent. He’s a good man, someone I My internship at WKBW-TV was an eye-opening experiam proud to say that I worked with. ence into how a smaller newsroom works in comparison to a And I don’t say that only because he bought me lunch. larger market like New York City. Please turn to Page 5

• Recruiting Season

• Report from Aspen

• Thanks to our Donors

• School Notes

• New Yorker Editor Speaks

Huffington to Speak At ’09 Commencement

RIANNA HUFFINGTON, editor-in-chief and cofounder of The Huffington Post, will be the keynote speaker at the Class of 2009’s graduation ceremony on December 16. Launched in May 2005, the HuffPost has become an influential media web site covering politics, business, technology, entertainment, and the green movement. It is also a platform for thousands of bloggers who weigh in on a wide range of topics. Huffington, who writes a nationally syndicated political column for Tribune Media Services, is a frequent television commentator, with appearances on such shows as “Charlie Rose,” “Larry King Live,” and “The O’Reilly Factor.” She is the author of 12 books, including Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe. In 2009, Forbes magazine named her to its list of Most Influential Women in Media. She Arianna Huffington has also appeared on the Time 100, Time’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. “Arianna is very entrepreneurial, a valuable skill in this brave new world of journalism,” said Dean Stephen B. Shepard. Huffington will be the CUNY J-School’s third commencement speaker, following award-winning broadcast journalist Bill Moyers in 2008 and Dean Baquet, assistant managing editor and Washington bureau chief of The New York Times, in 2007. The 2009 commencement will take place at the Times Center in the New York Times building. A reception will follow at the CUNY J-School next door.

Finding New Ways to Connect With Applicants

T WAS A TYPICAL DAY at the CUNY J-School: a class attended the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in in news photography in one room, a freelance workshop Austin, Tex. While the admissions people were manning an in another. Or was it? The month was August, not a information booth, the others were out reporting on the time school is normally in session. And none of the 50 or so event and the city of Austin for a new web feature called students was even enrolled. They were all applicants to the Road Trip (roadtrip.journalism.cuny.edu/). J-School’s Class of 2011. Since then, whenever a team from the J-School has gone The two special seminars were among seven included in on an out-of-town trip, such as to the Deutsche Welle August Academy, a first-time production of the Office of Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany in June or the Admissions & Students Affairs. The admissions department National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention is always looking for new ways to reach out to prospective in Tampa, FL in August, they’ve showcased their work on students and the 2009 the Road Trip site. August Academy – “Such activities have modeled on the suchelped raise the Jcessful January School’s profile with Academy enrichment potential students on series for students the national and was one of several international stage,” innovative programs Dougherty said. added to the recruitThe added recruitment calendar this ment efforts have supyear. plemented monthly “August Academy is information sessions meant to kick off a at the J-School as well long-term relationship as invitations for with applicants,” said prospective students Admissions Director to sit in on classes and Stephen Dougherty. “It hear guest speakers. involves bringing them The admissions office into our community to keeps them informed give them a first-hand Maya Pope-Chappell (Class of '09), Jego Armstrong ('07), Carla Murphy ('09), of application deadlines and Angela Hill ('07) at black journalists' convention in Tampa, FL in August. and special events understanding of the CUNY J-School through an email experience.” newsletter it sends out several times a year. Though fall is the traditional recruiting season, the School officials hope the extra outreach will pay off with CUNY J-School’s outreach starts well before then. more record-setting enrollment numbers. With 81 students, Admissions staffers have been wracking up frequent flier the Class of 2010 is nearly 40% larger than the 2009 group miles covering reporters’ conferences, professional meetings, that will graduate in December. Early signs are encouraging and graduate school fairs both at home and abroad all year. for the Class of 2011: Applications are running well ahead Last March, a delegation of students, faculty, and staff of where they were a year ago.

Brown and Evans Chosen as Honorees for Next J-School Gala Matthew Goldstein Chancellor, The City University of New York Stephen B. Shepard Dean Judith Watson Associate Dean

Board of Advisers Roz Abrams WCBS-TV News Anchor Dean Baquet Washington Bureau Chief, Assistant Managing Editor of The New York Times Merrill Brown New Media Consultant David Carey Group President, Condé Nast Publications Connie Chung Television Journalist and Anchor Les Hinton CEO of Dow Jones & Co. Jared Kushner Publisher of The New York Observer Michael Oreskes Senior Managing Editor at the Associated Press Norman Pearlstine Chief Content Officer at Bloomberg News Rossana Rosado Publisher of El Diario/La Prensa

Howard Rubenstein President of Rubenstein Associates Arthur Siskind Senior Adviser to News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch Richard Stengel Managing Editor of Time David Westin President of ABC News Mark Whitaker Washington Bureau Chief of NBC News Matthew Winkler Editor-inChief of Bloomberg News Mortimer Zuckerman Chairman and Publisher of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report

INSIDESTORY

Amy Dunkin Editor John Smock Photographer Rich Sheinaus Graphic Design Director Miriam Smith Issue Designer You can read this and previous issues of Inside Story at http://journalism.cuny.bepress. com/inside_story/.

cal web site that offers original conNE OF THE MOST tent along with stories, blogs, and formidable couples in the videos from around news business the Internet. will receive Lifetime Evans dropped out Achievement Awards of school at age 15 to from the CUNY become a reporter in Graduate School of World War II-era Journalism next spring. Britain. He worked On May 10, 2010, the for many years as School will honor Tina editor of The Brown, editor of The Sunday Times in Daily Beast, and author London, where Harold Evans for their he quickly long careers in journalbecame known ism both in England and as a champion the U.S. of investigative Brown has served as journalism. Evans editor of The Tatler later became the magazine, Vanity Fair, founding editor and The New Yorker, of Condé which won five Harold Evans and Tina Naste Overseas Press Club Brown have had impressive Traveler Awards, four George careers in journalism. magazine Polk awards, and 10 and National Magazine worked as Awards during her six-year tenure. editorial director and Since leaving The New Yorker in 1998, president of Random she created Talk magazine, wrote the 2007 bestselling biography, The Diana House. His new memoir, My Paper Chase, Chronicles, about the late Diana, recounts his advenPrincess of Wales, hosted CNBC’s tures in journalism Topic A with Tina Brown, and last and has just been year founded The Daily Beast, a topi-

released. Queen Elizabeth knighted Evans in 2004 and bestowed the title Commander of the British Empire on Brown in 2000 for their service to journalism. Last year, the CUNY J-School’s second annual Awards for Excellence in Journalism honored broadcast journalist Barbara Walters. The event grossed nearly $350,000, most of which was used for student scholarships.

For more information about the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, go to our web site: www.journalism.cuny.edu

FALL 2009

I NS I D ES T O RY

DEAN’S CORNER

Dean Stephen B. Shepard, Prof. Jeff Jarvis, and the Aspen Institute's Charles Firestone in August

Reporting On a New Journalistic Ecosystem

t was Friday, February 20 — one of those bright, cold New York winter mornings. Just before heading to the subway, I checked my e-mails on my BlackBerry. The one that immediately caught my eye was from Alberto Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation: “I was talking with Walter Isaacson [President of the Aspen Institute] at dinner last night and he suggested that…we should tackle exploration and development of biz models [for journalism]… I said I was interested in supporting and suggested we do this w/you and CUNY. Interested?” Elated, I quickly thumbed back: “Are we interested? Yes. Yes. Yes. It would be a dream come true to work on this with everyone… Alberto, thanks for keeping us in mind…” We quickly formed a team headed by Jeff Jarvis, director of the interactive program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and a leading thinker about the future of journalism. We asked ourselves these questions: What would happen if a major metropolitan daily was no longer able to perform the civic functions of a newspaper in a community? What would replace it? Actually, we had been thinking for a long time about how to support quality journalism in this new digital age. We had run conferences on the subject, we had received a $3-million challenge grant from the Tow Foundation to set up a Center for Journalistic Innovation, and we had been working with The New York Times, our next-door neighbor, on a hyperlocal news project in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn, supported in part by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It wasn’t enough, we knew, to provide quality journalism. We had to find ways to pay for it in a sustainable way. After much discussion back and forth with Knight (thanks Eric Newton) and the Aspen Institute (thanks Charlie Firestone), we agreed to develop business plans, including detailed spreadsheets based on various assumptions, for two broad scenarios: (1) providing news to a local neighborhood and (2) for a major metropolitan area. The goal: present preliminary plans to a select audience of 50 at the Aspen Institute in August. Armed with a five-month, $250,000 grant from Knight, we hired staff: Peter Hauck, an experienced media executive who had worked with Professor Jarvis at the Newhouse chain of newspapers; Jennifer McFadden, a spreadsheet-savvy analyst who had worked at The New York Times; two of our own recent graduates, Matt Sollars and Damian Ghigliotty; and several graduate students from the Field Center for Entrepreneurship at CUNY’s Baruch College. Mignon Media, a well-known consultant, helped with the spreadsheets. As a first step, we surveyed more than 110 local web sites or blogs that were successfully serving local communities or cities. Some of them were supported by foundations, like Voice of San Diego, MinnPost, and the New Haven Independent. But others were selfsupporting: Baristanet.com in Montclair N.J., West SeattleBlog.com, The Arizona Guardian, and Sun Valley Online. Many of them shared crucial data with us: how big an audience, how much they charged for ads, what they paid reporters and sales people, how

Modeling the Future of News

DELEGATION FROM the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism delivered a hopeful message about the future of the news business to the Aspen Institute’s annual Forum on Communications and Society (FOCAS) in August. Initial research from the J-School’s New Business Models for News Project shows financially viable options for gathering and disseminating news that could fill the void in markets where local newspapers fold up shop. The project, funded by the Knight Foundation, “is exploring what happens to journalism in a city when a large daily newspaper disappears,” said lead presenter Jeff Jarvis, director of the CUNY J-School’s interactive program. “Will there be a market demand for journalism? Can the market meet this demand? And who will pay for the journalism we need? These are business questions and so we sought business answers in conducting our research.” Dean Stephen B. Shepard and Associate Dean Judith Watson accompanied Jarvis to the Aspen conference. (See Dean’s Corner, page 3.) Out of the research came the construction of complete business models that CUNY is sharing with the journalists, communities, entrepreneurs, technologists, and investors. The future, Jarvis predicted, will no longer be dominated by a single entity, such as a large daily newspaper. Instead a metro market will evolve into an ecosystem made up of many players with varying motives, means, and models, working collaboratively in networks. The building blocks of that ecosystem are hyperlocal blogs, which now number in the thousands, according to the hyperlocal network outside.in. “The most startling and hopeful number we found in our survey of local sites,” said Jarvis, “is that some hyperlocal bloggers, serving markets of about 50,000 people, are already bringing in up to $200,000 a year in advertising. After three years we project that a blogger could hire editorial staff and advertising help – citizen salespeople who help support the citizen journalists – and net $148,000 out of $332,000 revenue. That’s a conservative estimate when you consider that a community weekly paper in such a town probably grosses between $2 million to $5 million a year.” The project also modeled a New News Organization (NNO) – the successor to the newspaper newsroom – that covers city-wide stories, provides the best reporting that will remain the lifeblood of local journalism, and works collaboratively with many in the community. It is the largest member of the ecosystem but, with a staff of 100 instead of 1,000, it is much smaller than the old newspaper and has shed costs for printing and distribution. “That’s why our model shows that it can be a profitable and sustainable enterprise,” Jarvis said. There are more contributors to the metro news ecosystem: technology and sales support organizations that enable these players to operate as part of ad and content networks (the project also modeled a company that could perform these services); publicly supported and not-for-profit entities; transparency of government actions and information (critical to enabling any citizen to become a watchdog); national networks, and the immeasurable but invaluable force of volunteers who freely contribute to public knowledge. Adding this all together, the models project sustainable journalism of scale but also envision great potential for growth, especially if journalists learn to take advantage of the social engagement the Internet enables. “That’s ultimately how new news companies can maximize their value,” Jarvis noted. Next steps for the project include refining the models, researching local advertising further, exploring the link economy, and hosting a conference on November 11 at the JSchool. “I’m an optimist,” said Jarvis. “Look at all the new opportunities there are to gather and share news in new ways, to expand and improve it, to change journalism’s relationship with its public and make it collaborative, to find new efficiencies and lower costs and thus to return to profitability and sustainability. It’s an exciting time for journalism.” Go to newsinnovation.com for the latest on the New Business Models for News Project. Download the new business models spreadsheets at newsinnovation.com/models.

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Hyperlocal blogs are the building blocks for community coverage.

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much they earned. Yes, earned. Many of them were nicely profitable while providing valuable news to a community that was actively involved in covering themselves. In short, by collaborating with their communities, they were creating both a journalistic and business model. Flash forward to August. There we were in Aspen, with 200-page books loaded with spreadsheets and business plans. We proposed a new journalistic ecosystem that had four main players: • A New News Organization staffed by professional journalists. • A network of local bloggers covering various aspects of a community, from schools and housing to health and crime. • A service-providing framework that would offer sales support and networking opportunities. • Non-profit groups in the community, such as a local NPR radio station. Lo and behold, our models showed that bloggers could support themselves with local and networked

ads, events, and e-commerce. The New News Organization (NNO, as we fondly called it) could have double-digit profit margins. Yes, the NNO would be smaller and have lower revenues than an existing local newspaper, but its cost structure would be much leaner, creating nice margins. By collaborating with local bloggers and sites, the NNO would be deeply rooted in the community, providing a form of hyperlocal content that traditional newspapers don’t offer. And it would open up a source of hyperlocal revenue from local and regional advertisers that could be networked. Over two days, the participants pored over our models, offered criticisms, made suggestions. Some disagreed with our conclusions, but pretty soon nearly everybody was talking about journalistic ecosystems and New News Organizations. We are now refining our models, working toward a deadline of January 31 for our final report. All of our work is available for scrutiny and comment on a special web site, newsinnovation.com. We’d love to hear from you.

STEPHEN B. SHEPARD DEAN, CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism Gifts and Pledges, 2006-2009* $1 Million + Bloomberg L.P. Marian Heiskell Ruth Holmberg Judith P. Sulzberger $500,000-$999,999 John S. and James L. Knight Foundation News Corporation Foundation $100,000-$499,999 Lorraine Barnathan Himan Brown The Carnegie Corporation of New York Connie Chung and Maury Povich Lambert Family Foundation John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation McCormick Tribune Foundation McGraw-Hill Companies $50,000-$99,999 Joyce L. Barnathan Hearst Corp. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Thomas S. Murphy Howard J. Rubenstein Lisbeth and Daniel Schorr Lynn Povich and Stephen B. Shepard Paul W. Sturm Time Warner Foundation $25,000-$49,999 ABC News Altman/Kazickas Foundation Daniel Barnathan Jacqueline Barnathan and Kenneth B. Marlin Sid R. Bass, Inc. Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. Barry Diller Constance Laibe Hays Family The Leonard & Evelyn Lauder Foundation National Public Radio New York Times Company Newsweek Raymond & Gladys Pearlstine Trust Peter G. Peterson Foundation The Pittman Family Foundation The Randolph Foundation Debra L. Raskin and Michael Young Rattner Family Foundation Schlosstein-Hartley Family Foundation Stonehurst Associates Ltd Time Inc. Marcia Brady Tucker Foundation Mortimer B. Zuckerman $10,000-$24,999 Roslyn Abrams and Kenneth R. Showers American University Arnhold Foundation Carla and Michael Barnathan City University of New York The Correspondents Fund Annette and Oscar de la Renta Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Jared Kushner Donald B. Marron Foundation Susan and Leonard Nimoy Karen Pennar Lisa H. and Andrew G. Setos ZaZa and Howard F. Skidmore The Wagner Foundation Evelyn K. and Barry Weinberg Suzanne and Bob Wright $5,000-$9,999 Brokaw Family Foundation Daniel Burke Arlette & William J. Coleman Family Foundation Committee to Protect Journalists, Inc. Jennie and Richard De Scherer Ehrenkranz Family Foundation Gottsegen Family Foundation International Women’s Media Foundation Josephine P. Law Norman Pearlstine Elizabeth M. and Robert C. Sheehan Kate R. Whitney $1,000-$4,999 4Kids Entertainment Licensing, Inc. Abekas, Inc. Andy Abrahams Accurate Building Inspectors

e are extremely grateful to many friends for their generous support of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, the only public graduate journalism school in the Northeast. Our first major gift came to us before the doors to our new School opened in 2006. It was a $4 million scholarship fund in honor of Arthur Ochs “Punch” Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times from 1963 to 1992, given by his sisters Judith Sulzberger, Marian Heiskell, and Ruth Holmberg. Since then, the Sulzberger sisters have been joined by many other wonderful and generous donors — individuals, foundations, and corporations — who have stepped forward to support our students with contributions for our unique paid summer internship program and student scholarships. Such donors have helped make it possible for our diverse student body to receive a world-class graduate journalism education. As we approach our four-year anniversary, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism is well on its way to meeting a $3 million challenge grant to fund The Tow Center for Journalistic Innovation. The Center offers a fresh perspective and interdisciplinary approach to solving the problems of journalism in America. Because we are a young school without a strong alumni base, we have established The Future Journalists Program, to encourage career journalists and others to invest in our students — the journalists of tomorrow — by supporting our summer internship program or funding scholarships for students in need. For more information on this program, please contact Diana Robertson, director of development, at 646-758-7814 or send an email to diana.robertson@journalism.cuny.edu. Thank you to all who have given so generously to ensure the success of our students and our J-School. Allegro Foundation ARTnews The Associated Press Michelle P. and Elliot S. Barnathan Magda and Edward Bleier Gail and Mark Bowden Steve Brill Michael S. Brown Betsy Carter and Gary M. Hoenig The Capital Group Companies Charitable Foundation Ellen Chesler and Matthew J. Mallow Mark Clements Conde Nast Publications John R. Cook, Jr. Julie Copeland and Robert J. Beller Susan and William T. Deyo Alfred A. Edmond, Jr. The Eisner Foundation Inc. Evergreen Partners, Inc. Liz and Keith M. Fleischman GE Foundation Holli and Edward Gerst Marlene and Jerome Goldstein The Graduate Center Myrna and Stephen D. Greenberg James F. Hoge, Jr. The Hubbard Broadcasting Foundation Hunter College Jewish Communal Fund John Jay College Marvin Kalb Henry A. Kissinger Kingsborough Community College Ann and Tom C. Korologos Edward Kosner Sarah and Victor Kovner Carole and Frank Lalli Deborah and Rocco Landesman Robert L. Lenzner Jacqueline Leo Elfriede and Jerome Luntz Susan Lyne Diane M. and William K. Marimow Marion and Frederick Pierce Reader’s Digest Susan M. and Eugene L. Roberts, Jr. Felix & Elizabeth Rohatyn Foundation Ruth Rosenthal Cristine Russell and Ben W. Heineman, Jr. Susan Saint James and Dick Ebersol Pamela J. Sabrin Sybil A. and Martin Sage Laura Saunders Schwab Charitable Fund Edith and Martin Segal Mort Sheinman Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Carl Spielvogel Paul Steiger Richard W. Stubbe Katharine and Dennis D. Swanson Linda Wachner Sherrie and David Westin Judy and Josh Weston Fund Michele Willens and David Corvo Michael Ubell Linda and Elmon L. Vernier, Jr. Narda Zacchino and Robert Scheer Fanny and Richard Zorn

$100-$999 Joel M. Adler Lisa G. and Stephen J. Adler Judith R. Aisen and Kenneth M. Vittor Anonymous Russell Appel Robert L. Arnold Christine and Robert Barker Roy Barnes, Esq. Sarah Bartlett Elizabeth Basile Brenda Batten Jaime Beauchamp Soma and Bill Behr Joan M. and James J. Bell Constance Bennett Lenore and Martin G. Berck Robin J. Bernstein Cathleen P. Black and Thomas E. Harvey Betty and William Blando Donna and Peter Bonventre Warren Boorom

Peter H. Coy Crain Communications, Inc. Prudence Crowther Chester C. Dawson Bianca M. and Charles L. De Cicco Marguerite DelGiudice and Doran Twer David Diaz, Jr. John A. Dierdorff David Dietz Phillip Dixon Byron Dobell Robert Dowling Dagny and Timothy Du Val Robin and Michael Duke Richard S. Dunham Ellen Dunkin Marsha and Anthony Durniak Sarah D. and Ralph B. Edwards Peter J. Engardio Rosalind and Gerald Eskenazi William P. Farley Margaret Feinstein and David A. Sattler

Diane Brady and Barry Maggs Rosemary Brady Brooklyn T-Shirt Factory Carol Bunevich and John Merson Martin Burack Sue Buyer Benedetta and Frank Campisi Susan Canaan Lauri and David Carey John A. Carey Lee and John S. Carroll Maurice C. Carroll Linda F. and Ronald Carvalho Pui-Yu A. Cheung Mark H. Cohen Cynthia R. Cook Mindy and Daniel H. Cook Jorge Cora Yana and Seth A. Coren Theresa and Raymond R. Corio Genevieve J. and Orazio Covelli

Martin Feinstein Robert Feinstein Francesca and John A. Ferguson Financial Security Assurance, Inc. Merrel B. Finkler Lois M. Framhein Ellen V. Futter Steven Garfinkel Ann Geracimos John P. Gilmore Stephanie and Paul Glaser G. William Glazebrook Richard Glazer GM Advisory Group, Inc. Margaret B. and John N. Goldman Risa and Kenneth Gold Florence and Selvin Gootar Herbert A. Granath Margaret and George A. Grasso Susan M. Gregg and Steven Silberberg Karen and Sam Gronner Neil D. Gross

STEPHEN B. SHEPARD DEAN, CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

Ilona R. Halper Shelly Halpern Kathleen and William A. Harmond Kendall C. and Phillippe H. Harousseau The Katherine Hatton and Richard Bilotti Fund Jody and Andrew J. Heyward Mary M. Hilley Suzanne and Henry Hirschberg R.P. and Edgar Hirst Kathleen C. and Gary B. Hopkins Nancy C. and Joseph C. Inman, Jr. Irving X. Fabrikant Foundation Sharon R. and Fred C. Jahnke Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland Keith R. Johnson Linda and Elliot Jonas Judith and Paul Kales Susan and Stewart Kampel Thelma E. and Myron I. Kandel Dorothy and Morton I. Kaufman Helene P. and George Keramidas Henry S. Klibanoff Knight Ridder Jeremy Koch Lynnae S. and Clifford E. Koroll Jay L. Kriegel Manjeet Kripalani Mary S. Kuntz Jacqueline S. and William P. Kupper, Jr. Martiza J. and Theodore S. Kurtz Arlene C. and Jeffrey M. Laderman David A. Laskin Gretchen Leefmans and Allan M. Siegel Lynelle and Jonathan Leess Colleen Levine Karl Levitt Myra J. and Fred I. Lewis Joel B. Lidov Linque Management Co., Inc. Walter Lister Nina N. and Stuart H. Loory Kristi and Gene G. Marcial Scott Marden Julie A. and Daniel G. Marr Daniel Massey William L. Matzkin Trust Polly and Bruce McCall Steven J. McCarthy Barbara C. McCue Judith E. and Andrew J. McGowan Michael D. McNamee Elaine A. Mednick Barabara L. Meltzer Cheryl A. Menzies and David P. Henry Marc Miller Jeffrey G. Milton Annette and Marvin Mord Mark Morrison Diane and Robert Moss Ann and Steve Murphy Antonie U. and Ira L. Neiger New York Times Company Foundation Matching Gifts Program The New Yorker Martha A. Newman and Paul D. Nadler Patricia and Hayes Noel Annette and Noah M. Osnos Susan S. and Peter L. Osnos Parhan Family Fund Mark E. Pasquerilla

Peachtree Vascular Specialists, P.C. David L. Perlman Mauree J. and Mark W. Perry Plutarch Associates Inc. Bert Pogrebin Ann Pringle-Harris Selwyn Raab Harriet and Bruce Rabb Cecile and Sonny Raichlen Cynthia A. and Frank Raphael Kathleen Rebello Katherine and Stanley F. Reed III Susan K. Reed Elizabeth and Whitelaw Reid Sandra and Robert E. Rice Ann M. and Paul D. Rittenberg Robert Spector Trust Julia G. and Anthony C. Rocco Anne and Harry Rosenfeld Strawn and Richard J. Rosenthal Joan Lee and Bernard Roshco Seymour Rubenfeld Marcia P. and Harold E. Rubin Seymour Rubinfeld Ellen S. and Ira Sager Jane A. Sasseen Anita and David Saunders Laura Saunders and Christopher Power Henry Schafer Judith Scherer and Michael J. Mandel Marlene C. and Edward B. Schimmel Robert D. Schweizer Herbert L. Seigle Lynnette Semrau Susan R. and L. Dennis Shapiro Arlene Sidaris Janice E. Siglin and Jonathan Sternberg Sylvia and Robert Silberberg Nancy S. Simmons Vinita Singla Marion P. and Stephen F. Smith Helen G. and Charles A. Steinberg Irena C. and Bruce E. Stern Cynthia Stivers Richard B. Stolley Jeanne Straus and Richard Tofel Janet Sullivan Christine E. Summerson Elizabeth and Robert Surcouf Lillian Swanson and David Y. Warner Catherine A. and William C. Symonds Anna and Ferdanand Tambone Clare and John L. Templeman Helene R. and Ira Terris Terri Thompson Carll Tucker Pamela A. Tucker Stanley Turitz Molly and Robert R. Tway Robert N. Ubell Garrick Utley David Van Ness Taylor Wachovia Matching Gifts Program Betsy Wade and Edward J. Silberfarb Ann and David Wallace Judie D. and Robert S. Wallen The Walt Disney Company Foundation Donald E. Weber Revocable Trust Elizabeth R. Weiner The Weiner Nusim Foundation, Inc. Lenora and William Weiss George Weissman Kimberly S. Weisul Judy and Josh Weston Margaret White Joan and David Wise Paula A. and James A. Wiste Wolf Weissman CPA’s PC Michael J. Wolk Vera and Sheldon Zalaznick Minyie Zen Kacey A. and David A. Zucchino In Kind Gifts Apple Thelma and Myron I. Kandel *The list above reflects gifts received between the inception of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in 2006 through June 30, 2009. Our special thanks to all the donors from the $1-$99 category, whose names we could not include due to space limitations. If you believe any errors have been made or if you prefer to have your gift recorded in a different manner, please call Diana Robertson, director of development, at 646-758-7814, or email her at diana.robertson@journalism.cuny.edu. Thank you. CUNY is an educational corporation established under Article 125 of the New York State Education Law and is a duly qualified tax-exempt organization for federal income tax purposes under 26 U.S.C. 170 (c) (1).

I NSI D ESTORY F A L L 2 0 0 9

Students Report on their Summer Internships Continued From Page 1

Rima Abdelkader, Al Jazeera English, New York

L JAZEERA ENGLISH is the first English-language world news channel headquartered in Qatar. The channel aims to give voice to untold stories, promote debate, and challenge established perceptions. It was launched in November 2006 and has broadcast centers in Doha, Kuala Lumpur, London, and Washington, DC. This channel is not to be confused with Al Jazeera, the first independent Arabic news channel in the world that was launched 12 years ago. I’ve noticed that explaining this difference has been a challenge for AlJazEng reporters and producers. During the war in Iraq, former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld accused the Arabic channel of “vicious, inaccurate, and inexcusable” reports about the war, which has left many in the West with the impression that Al Jazeera English disseminates misinformation and panders to one side. Al Jazeera English in New York works on packages and live feeds from our Reuters office in Times Square to our office at the United Nations. I was tasked with covering business and international news, helping produce packages, manning the Reuters office or UN office at times, creating a list of sources for our NY correspondent for future stories, as well as going outside with our cameraman and interviewing people on a range of topics, such as the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. Finding sources for broadcast stories took a great deal of patience. Sometimes, I’d only have a short amount of time to research the topic, find a suitable person, and see if that’d person would be available to come in that day for a couple of minutes. It was definitely a great challenge to see how much I could handle.

Collin Orcutt, SI.com

y internship at Sports Illustrated’s web site has been more than I could have hoped for. I ate lunch with Terry McDonell, the magazine’s editor, was assigned various video projects, and overall was treated like a regular employee rather than an intern. Most of my last month was spent in the field, where I was trusted to make my own decisions and use my own creative voice. SI.com, I have learned, is re-upping its commitment to multimedia. While the majority of its current content is text and photo galleries pulled from the archives or Getty databases, they are working to incor-

Rima Abdelkader covered business and international news for “AlJazEng.” porate more video and slideshows as a way to fill out their site. It has been on that end that I spent most of my time, be it covering David Beckham's press conference preceding his return to Major League Soccer with Grant Wahl, SI's prolific soccer writer, or capturing some of New York City's best summer basketball at the Dyckman Summer League in northern Manhattan.

Mary Stachyra, The Times of India

UMBAI is an exhausting city. For the first few days, I hated it. The poverty, pollution, trash, and noise were so overwhelming. As an obvious foreigner, I also received a lot of unwanted attention. But a lot of things got better once I started my internship. It felt great to get back into the routine of writing and reporting. My first article was on Rudyard Kipling and the children’s book market. I think my major strength as an intern was that I was willing to talk with people many Times reporters overlooked. Just like in America, there is a section of society that feels alienated from The Times and other mainstream publications. So sometimes, I had an advantage over others. For example, I was working on a story about HinduChristian relations, and found it very tough

Collin Orcutt shoots for SI.com at the Dyckman basketball court.

FALL 2009

I NS I D ES T O RY

to talk with small Christian charitable organizations. “The only reason I talked to you is because you are American,” one person told me. The Times reporters really Mary had a lot to offer Stachyra and were takes a sightextremely generseeing break ous with their in Lohgad, time. I followed India. reporters along to press conferences, mostly just to see how they handle writing stories on deadline. They introduced me to people and let me see the finished product afterward (before it was inevitably edited down). The fun part was, I could follow around reporters from sections I normally wouldn’t have anything to do with. I took a day to go to a tennis match with one of the sports reporters. I would never do that in the U.S.

Jim Flood, The New York Times Local, New York

T’S AMAZING WHAT a difference six words can make. Being able to say, “I’m from The New York Times” has opened up access and opportunities for me that student journalists often don’t have. The name recognition was not even the highlight of my internship, however. The best part was the flexibility and creativity that came with working for a local blog. I was able to work out of my own home, report in my own neighborhood, and pitch ideas that I could then decide how best to execute using my own journalistic judgment. The first post I wrote during the summer, published on June 1, came out of my experiences as a neighborhood resident. At the top of my block, I noticed that a piece of street art had materialized on the boardedup front of an abandoned church. I men-

tioned it to Times Local reporter Andy Newman and he said he had a tip from a reader that it was done by an artist named Specter. After some researching online, I found Specter’s real name and contact information and interviewed him about the artwork, a portrait of a homeless man he’d met in Manhattan. This is to me one of the best purposes of a hyperlocal blog: getting to the bottom of mysteries that may not be hard news, but that people have been wondering about.

Jenni Avins, Saveur, New York

KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE that any hook can help, however tenuous it might be. So, I thought, this is a food magazine — June is National Dairy Month. I come from a long line of dairy farmers, and my mom has always collected Elsie the Cow memorabilia. (Elsie, a daisy-necklaced Jersey cow, has been Borden Dairy’s mascot since the 1930s.) I pitched a nostalgic look at Elsie’s career, which Web Editor Katie Cancila loved. I wrote it up for the web, and Katie ended up holding it, thinking it might have a place in the magazine. When I spoke to Dana Bowen, the magazine’s executive editor, about the story, I told her how I had written the piece as a sort of distant, nostalgic, retrospective look at Elsie. Then, I told her a little bit more about my mom and my experience reporting the story. It turns out my great grandfather, a Swiss dairy farmer, was exhibiting at the 1939 World's Fair where the original Elsie was "discovered." Dana was thrilled with this connection and wanted to know more about my mother’s Elsie collection and my family’s farm. What's special about Saveur is that a personal connection to a subject is seen as valuable, rather than problematic, as often is the case in journalism. It’s funny because I've spent so much energy in school working to take myself out of the story, and then Dana advised me to put myself back in. (The Elsie piece ran in Saveur ‘s October 2009 issue.)

New Yorker Editor Sees Solid Support For His Brand of Journalism

SCHOOL NOTES Ana Toro

ALUMNI NEWS

CLASS OF ’08: Francesca Levy has moved to Forbes magazine to cover real estate after a stint as a reporter at The Deal. Maureen Ker is writing children’s books in Washington D.C.

CLASS OF ’07: Congratulations to Ana Toro and Andrew Greiner for being the first CUNY J-School couple to tie the knot. After their wedding in July, they moved to Chicago where Andy is deputy managing editor for nbcchicago.com and Ana is starting a freelance career. David Chiu is working part time at Us Weekly as a researcher. Andrew Greiner

OTHER NEWS The National Center for Courts and Media awarded Anastasia Economides (Class of ’09) a full scholarship to attend its Basic Legal Affairs Reporting for Journalists course in Reno, NV from July 17 to 28. Look for a relaunch this fall of Digital News Journalist, a web site dedicated to providing students and professionals with tips, tools, and resources for producing leading-edge multimedia stories. For example, a recent series by interactive instructor Jeremy Caplan covers Google Docs for Journalists. John Smock, who teaches courses in news photography and interactive journalism, is overseeing the redesign of the site, digitalnewsjournalist.com. The project was started by Associate Professor Sandeep Junnarkar of the interactive faculty. All students now have the option to stretch their studies into a fourth semester. They may choose to pursue this option to take additional courses at the J-School or other CUNY college, take advantage of an especially good internship offer, spread out their workload, or participate in a semester abroad. The J-School said a fond farewell Sept. 3 to its first director of finance & administration, Geraldo Vasquez, at a luncheon in Room 308. Vasquez resigned his post to pursue a PhD in housing finance at Milano The New School for Management and Urban Policy. Before joining the CUNY J-School in 2006, he worked as a senior auditor in the New York State Comptroller’s office. He is a certified public accountant who earned a B.A. and M.S. in accounting from CUNY’s Queens College.

INSIDESTORY

Former finance & administration director Gerry Vasquez is pursuing a PhD in housing finance.

AVID REMNICK, editor of The New Yorker magazine since 1998, exhorted CUNY J-School students to veer away from the famous and instead sharpen their investigative skills because “that is what the country needs most of all from its journalists.” He made the remarks in a conversation Sept. 22 with Dean Stephen B. Shepard before a packed house of 150 in the JSchool newsroom. Remnick was the first guest speaker to appear as part of the 2009-2010 Brown Bag Speaker Series, which brings prominent journalists to the School for an informal audience with students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The appearances are often scheduled during lunchtime — hence, the name. Remnick, who is writing a book on President Barack Obama, has covered his share of famous people, from Pope John Paul II to boxer Muhammad Ali. Yet he spoke of how difficult it is to write something original or deep about someone who is practiced at keeping reporters at bay. He’d much rather see young journalists put their efforts into the painstaking process “that reaps Abu Ghraib and the Pentagon Papers. That kind of reporting is absolutely essential to keeping power honest.” Asked if he was worried that we can no longer afford good investigative journalism, Remnick replied: “If you told me the Internet was going to be a great and powerful instrument of investigation of power — and it’s already happening in some ways — I’d be very pleased. We know a lot

more about Iran, for example, because of the web. In terms of the skills, the actually doing of the thing and having a fearless temperament, that is rare and desperately needed.” In a departure from many other print publications, The New Yorker has invested only modest resources into its web site, Remnick noted. “I cannot avert my eyes from the very core of what The New Yorker should be doing. We have to be a great magazine,” he said. “Reading 15,000-word pieces online or even printed out on paper is David just not the Remnick mode for it — addresses a yet.” lunchtime Readers so crowd in the far agree with J-School this approach, newsroom. supporting the magazine with a phenomenal 85% subscription renewal rate. What’s more, with the number of college-educated adults continuing to grow, Remnick said, more people “want what it is we do.” “I think what will end up happening is they’ll pay more for it on the circulation side to make up for lost ad revenue. For magazines on the cusp that people don’t want as much, it will be a hell of a lot harder,” he said. Still, Remnick can see the day when more advanced digital technology along with the economic need to eliminate the three P’s — printing, paper, and postage — could make the web the main form of distribution for most publications, even his. Referring to the pile of newspapers lying outside his door on Sunday mornings, Remnick said: “It can be a big hairy mess, with stuff falling out it. Do I know it’s not long for this world? Yes I do.” But “what's in those things, for all their faults,” he added, is enormously important.

Word Processors of Old

219 W. 40th St., Third Floor New York, NY 10018

These relics of early 20th century journalism were recently donated to the CUNY JSchool by the New York bureau of The Los Angeles Times. They are part of an antique typewriter collection assembled by Robert E. Dallos, a New York-based LA Times business reporter who died in 1991. The bureau, which displayed the machines for many years in its reception area, was forced to part with them after it moved to smaller quarters. The JSchool took 15 typewriters from the 30-piece collection and plans to exhibit them in its newsroom, lobby, and corridors. Others went to the Newseum in Washington D.C.