ST. PETERSBURG, FL – The Poynter Institute has announced a new tuition scholarship program in response to the financial challenges facing news organizations and individual journalists. The program will make available a limited number of tuition subsidies worth up to $500 for participants of select 2009 on-site seminars. The scholarships are made possible, in part, by a 2008 general support grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and proceeds from the book, “President Obama,” a collection of newspaper election and inaugural front pages published by Poynter and Andrews McMeel.
“We know how much the economic problems in the media business are affecting the ability of news organizations and individuals to pay for training,” said Karen B. Dunlap, president of the Poynter Institute. “And we’re grateful to all of the Poynter benefactors who support our goal of providing affordable training to as many practitioners of journalism as possible. Hopefully, this program will inspire the participation of those who believe, as we do, that training is more important than ever to the creation of journalism that truly serves our democracy.”
Scholarship recipients will be chosen on the basis of criteria that include: their need; how much they can contribute to their tuition; the potential of the training to improve their work; and how they will increase the diversity of the seminar class. A complete schedule of Poynter’s on-site seminars, including scholarship application information, is available at www.poynter.org/seminars.
About The Poynter Institute
Founded in 1975 in St. Petersburg, Fla., The Poynter Institute (www.poynter.org) is one of the nation’s top schools for professional journalists, future journalists and journalism teachers. Poynter offers training throughout the year in the areas of online and multimedia, leadership and management, reporting, writing and editing, TV and radio, ethics and diversity, journalism education and visual journalism. Poynter’s News University (www.newsu.org) offers newsroom training to journalists and journalism students through interactive e-learning modules and links to other journalism education and training opportunities.
About the Annie E. Casey Foundation
The primary mission of the Annie E. Casey Foundation is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. In pursuit of this goal, the Foundation makes grants that help states, cities, and neighborhoods fashion more innovative, cost-effective responses to these needs.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Fanua Borodzicz, assistant to the dean, fborodzicz@poynter.org
Jessica Sandler, marketing manager, jsandler@poynter.org
Phone: 1-888-POYNTER (1-888-769-6837)
