The Center began in 1997 when the college was preparing to offer a BA degree in journalism. Our goal was to seek ways to connect to the profession and to be of service to working journalists. The New York Press Association responded enthusiastically to a proposal to establish a center geared specifically to the needs of journalists who work in community news. The Association pledged $150,000 over three years to get the program started. The New York Newspapers Foundation followed with an additional $40,000 for two years.
During the first two years, nearly 90 different news organizations and more than 100 students have participated in the Center's programs. The Center has offered nine workshops and was host to two distinguished panels of journalists, who discussed the social and ethical issues that affect local news media. The first panel program was transmitted via satellite to four other sites in New York so audiences could participate from remote locations. Last summer, the John Ben Snow Foundation donated $5,000 to duplicate and distribute videotapes of these two panel discussions to journalism educators nationwide.
Responding to a need for journalists to be skilled in newsroom technology, the Center has equipped a portable computer lab, which will be used to deliver customized training programs in Photoshop, QuarkXpress and typography to newspapers across the state. Additionally, through its outreach programs, the Center is conducting research about community journalism. It has teamed up with the Huck Boyd Center for Community Media at Kansas State University and the National Newspaper Association Foundation to survey journalism educators about their perceptions of weekly newspapers. The results will help the industry better understand how to work with educators to attract entrylevel reporters.
Another research project is also under way that will create a model of excellence in community news. This study will examine the correlation between quality journalism and a newspaper's success in the marketplace. The Center will seek funding to produce a television documentary that profiles those newspapers that best fit the model.
The Center is an ambitious initiative of SUNY Oswego's journalism program, which graduated its first seven majors in May 1999. (Five are now working in community news). With this latest grant, the Center's future is secure for the next two years.