The Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University is establishing what will be the only university-based business newsroom in the country producing daily business and economic coverage for regional and national media outlets.
The student business newsroom will open in January and is being funded through a $1 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the organization that launched The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism in 2003.
“We’ve been doing a lot in business journalism for a number of years now for one simple reason: it’s an incredibly important area of coverage,” said Cronkite School Dean Christopher Callahan told the Phoenix Business Journal.
“Business, finance, and economics touch almost every aspect of journalism … city hall, entertainment, sports, virtually any beat you’re on has some dimension of financial and business coverage.”
The Donald W. Reynolds Business Reporting Bureau will distribute news through the Cronkite News Service.
The Reynolds Bureau will join eight other immersive newsroom programs at ASU, including Cronkite NewsWatch, the New Media Innovation Lab, and the Public Insight Network Bureau. | More about the Business Reporting Bureau
Seeking an editor
As part of the grant, Cronkite is seeking a prominent business journalist to serve as director of the bureau. In the summers the director will lead business coverage for the Carnegie-Knight News21 program, a national initiative where top journalism students from across the country report on an issue of national significance. The grant will also fund four students’ participation in News21 annually.
“The Reynolds Business Reporting Bureau will give our students extraordinary preparation to cover financial stories in business, government and even sports,” Callahan said. “We sincerely appreciate the Reynolds Foundation’s tremendous support of our mission to educate the next generation of business journalists.”
