RJI in the News

The newspaper is dying. Even the most stout-hearted optimists cannot overlook the sharp decline in subscription and readership across the board lately. Many papers have closed down in recent years or are on the verge of doing so. While this withering of a once-mighty national industry may look bleak to many, it is a journalistic genesis for many more. The rise of iPad newspapers, and online newspapers in general, makes quality journalism more accessible than ever.

The Block by Block Community News Summit, a network of local news entrepreneurs , was born three years ago this month.

After graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism in 1984 to pursue a career in newspapers, alumna Connie Farrow never imagined she’d be returning to campus in 2012 to help newspapers in a slightly different role. Missouri-based American Newspaper Digital Access Corporation (ANDAC) wants to help newspapers take advantage of technology to harness the value of their online content before they lose it to pirates who try to resell it.

The University of Missouri has received a $30.1 million gift to guarantee permanent funding for the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, the 4-year-old center devoted to innovation, collaboration and research in media industries. The gift, the largest endowment gift in the history of the university, came from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. It is the second largest gift ever to the University of Missouri. The largest gift was the more than $31 million the Foundation gave in 2004 to provide the physical facilities and initial operating expenses for the Institute.

A University of Missouri journalism think tank has received a $30.1 million endowment — one of the largest gifts in school history — to continue its research into the digital future of news, university leaders announced Thursday.

The University of Missouri has announced a $30 million gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to create a permanent endowment in support of its journalism institute.

The University of Missouri said it received a $30.1 gift from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to guarantee permanent funding for the school’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. The school said it’s the largest endowment gift the university has ever received.

The Reynolds Journalism Institute and Roger Fidler are putting together the fall 2012 Tablet Symposium (Pressing Ahead: Tablets, Mobile and News After Paper) Dec. 6-7 in Columbia, Mo. Roger is the Program Director for Digital Publishing.

For a very long time I really wasn’t a fan of paywalls. I felt that people expected content on the Internet to be free, and if hyperlocal and regional news sites began charging, the audience would go somewhere else. There’s still some truth to that concept, but it’s time to acknowledge that, overall, people are starting to get used to paying for content online — especially on smartphones and tablets.

Establishing large endowments is not something that the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation does often. Endowments, as permanent sources of funding, vouch not just for a program’s current quality but also the worth of that program for years to come. With a $30.1 million endowment gift for the Reynolds Journalism Institute, the Reynolds Foundation gave a large endorsement to the quality of journalism education and research at Mizzou.

The University of Missouri announced today that it has received a $30.1 million gift to guarantee permanent funding for the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, the 4-year-old center devoted to innovation, collaboration and research in media industries.

Stay Tuned, the Nine Network’s new, interactive television series, engages the public in live, real-time discussions of important issues that impact metropolitan St. Louis. The innovative, hour-long, weekly series debuts Thursday, November 8 at 9:00 p.m. on Nine PBS. (Repeated Saturdays at 2:00 a.m. beginning November 10.)

Stay Tuned uses the latest technology to bring people face to face for in-depth conversations, focusing each week on one topic of importance to the long-term vitality of our region. Host Casey Nolen brings overarching context to the issue during the live broadcast, inviting experts and community members to participate and interact in person and through technology using Google+Hangouts, Twitter and Facebook in a seamless integration of social media.

It wasn’t that long ago when town squares were the center of a community’s life. When confronted by tough issues, people met there formally and informally to hash out problems and possible solutions. The Nine Network takes old-fashioned community conversation to a newfashioned level with the weekly series Stay Tuned, which uses the latest technology to bring people face to face for in-depth discussions of issues important to the long term vitality of the region.

Online users seeking general information or accessing social networking sites often come across news which they start reading, just out of curiosity.

There has been a shift in the way people have begun to perceive online news, says study author Borchuluun Yadamsuren, post-doctoral fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), University of Missouri, reported a website.

More than 70 people have been killed, millions are without power and several thousand have lost their homes in the severe storm known as Hurricane Sandy. Relief efforts will provide for victims’ immediate needs, such as housing, food and water, but the emotional consequences of natural disasters are long term and not understood very well. A University of Missouri disaster communication expert is using a $2.4 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to establish a Terrorism and Disaster Center (TDC) that will train mental health providers to aid communities before and after natural and man-made disasters.

Assistant Communication Professor J. Brian Houston, co-director of the TDC, says staff will focus on mental and behavioral health preparedness, recovery and resilience in children, families and communities affected by disasters. Past research has emphasized responding to the immediate aftermath of disasters and terrorism, but the center will examine the long-term emotional repercussions on victims who are left to cope and rebuild after national media, politicians and disaster relief workers leave their communities.

For a very long time I really wasn’t a fan of paywalls. I felt that people expected content on the Internet to be free, and if hyperlocal and regional news sites began charging, the audience would go somewhere else. There’s still some truth to that concept, but it’s time to acknowledge that, overall, people are starting to get used to paying for content online — especially on smartphones and tablets.