INSIDESTORY
SPRING 2013 Vol. 7, No. 2 WWW.JOURNALISM.CUNY.EDU
For Founding Dean Stephen B. Shepard, It’s On to the Next Chapter
W
hen Stephen B. Shepard started as founding dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in March 2005, the fledgling program had no curriculum, no faculty, no students, and no walls. It took him 18 months, working alongside Associate Dean Judith Watson and a handful of CUNY stalwarts and trusted advisers, to get all those not-so-small details into place. Now Shepard, who came out with his memoir last year, has decided it’s time for him to write the next chapter in his life. At year’s end, after presiding over the J-School’s seventh commencement in December, he will relinquish his dean’s hat to a successor. “It has been a privilege for me to come on and start this school from scratch,” Shepard said. “There’s no other reason I’m stepping down other than it seems like the right time.”
Shepard is credited with establishing a national footprint for the CUNY J-School
IN THIS ISSUE:
vol . 7 , no . 2
2
PHOTOS BY JENNIFER S. ALTMAN, JOHN SMOCK
He won’t be severing his relationship with the J-School, however. He will stay on as a University Professor, working on special projects. For Shepard, who moved into academia after a distinguished magazine career, creating the only publicly funded graduate journalism school in the Northeast has special meaning. He is a native New Yorker (“one of those up-from-the-streets, stickball playing kids from the Bronx”) and a product of the CUNY system, graduating in 1961 with an engineering degree from City College. After breaking the news to his parents that he’d rather be a journalist than an engineer, he landed in the editorial training program at McGraw-Hill. Some 21 years later, he ascended to editor-inchief of McGraw-Hill’s crown-jewel publication, BusinessWeek. He also served as a senior editor at Newsweek and editor of Saturday Review. Shepard is credited with assembling a worldclass-faculty and establishing a national footprint for the CUNY J-School, which offers M.A. degrees in Journalism and Entrepreneurial Journalism. He has raised about $25 million for special academic programs and scholarships and is especially proud that alumni work at nearly every major news organization in the U.S. and abroad. n
Clockwise from top left: The Dean in 2006; with the other departing NYC journalism school dean, Nicholas Lemann of Columbia, in 2011; with TV journalists Tom Brokaw and Connie Chung at the 2008 gala; signing books in 2012; in the classroom in 2008; with CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein and student speaker Alva French at the 2011 commencement; in conversation with David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, in 2009.
Commencement 2012 • Report on NYC Ad Spending 3 Dean’s Corner • On the Job with Elis Estrada 4 School Notes • Journalism for Mobile Devices • Photo Box: A Lesson in Lighting SPRING 2013
1
Public Radio’s Ira Glass Tells 2012 Grads: “Amuse Yourself”
JENNIFER S. ALTMAN
The 2012 graduating class, headliner Ira Glass from Public Radio International’s “This American Life,” student speaker Shannon Firth
By Lauren Rothman Class of 2013
I
ira Glass, often regarded as an unconventional journalist, had unconventional advice for the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism’s 2012 graduating class. “My message is this: Amuse yourself,” he told the 86 graduates during his commencement speech at the TheTimesCenter auditorium on West 41st Street down the block from the CUNY J-School. He urged the grads to use their newly minted Master of Arts degrees to distinguish themselves by pursuing stories that interest them personally. “You’re not gonna make any money, is what I’ve heard,” he said, “so you might as well have fun.” At the same time, Glass, the host of Public Radio International’s “This American Life,” doesn’t agree with the doomsayers who moan that journalism is threatened, dying, or even dead. “If you make something good, there’s an environment out there to monetize it,” he said. Glass said the Internet has made it possible for bud-
ding journalists to get their work out for the public to see and possibly even secure funding. He cited the work of Roman Mars, a public radio producer and reporter whose Kickstarter campaign raised more than $100,000 for 99% Invisible, his self-produced show about design and architecture. Glass said that in a world seemingly saturated with news stories, finding a good one is a nearly full-time job. “Story ideas are not sprinkled on us like fairy dust,” he said. One way to track down something unique and special, he said, is to follow one’s own instincts and to have a sense of fun about the work. A story that resonates with the journalist who produces it is likely to resonate with the audience, too. “It’s got to stick in your gut first,” he told the graduates. He mentioned one story produced several months after 9/11 about an aircraft carrier that had been launching missions over Afghanistan. The ship housed 5,000 people, men and women, average age of 21, and the whole scene
Report Finds NYC Spends Limited Ad Dollars Outside Mainstream Press
M
ore than half of New York City residents read a newspaper that circulates just in their neighborhood or among members of their ethnic group. Yet when city agencies need to get out the word about their programs or services, they typically overlook these publications in favor of a select few. That’s the chief finding of a white paper released Mar. 3 by the Center for Community and Ethnic Media (CCEM) at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. The report documents how little of the city’s ad budget goes to community and ethnic papers despite their large A conference of community and ethnic media at the CUNY J-School and devoted readership. The combined lion a year to convey messages about health, education, circulation of the 95 ethnic newspapers transportation, and economic development, as well as job and 80 weekly community papers is about 4.5 million, or opportunities at city agencies, to the public. 55 percent of the population, yet these outlets receive only n About 82 percent of the ad budget of city agencies is about 18 percent of the city’s advertising dollars. earmarked for mainstream publications such as The New The report also discovered that: n New York City is currently spending about $18 milYork Times, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, 2
www.journalism.cuny.edu
reminded his radio crew of a “giant floating nucleararmed dormitory.” While other broadcast news organizations ran very serious pieces, his reporter interviewed a 19-year-old Navy volunteer whose entire job was to fill the ship’s vending machines with candy. Glass, 54, has hosted “This American Life,” a popular radio show and podcast that tells unexpected stories about everyday people, since 1995. The show has received honors ranging from the Peabody and Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards to the Edward R. Murrow and Overseas Press Club awards. Glass admitted that sometimes, getting a good story is just a matter of getting lucky: “Being a journalist is about harnessing luck. You have to have a theory about how to invoke it.” The commencement also featured remarks by student speaker Shannon Firth, ’10 alumnus Walter SmithRandolph, Dean Stephen B. Shepard, CUNY Senior Vice Chancellor Jay Hershenson, and CUNY Trustee Charles Shorter. n
amNewYork, and MetroNY. The rest is disbursed among smaller publications, many of which are published in languages other than English. n Hispanics make up over 28 percent of the city’s population, but Spanish-language publications have garnered less than 4 percent of the total ad spending. For years, publishers of small local papers have complained that New York City government agencies overlook them when choosing where to run ads about their programs and services. To weigh these concerns, the researchers interviewed city officials, advertising executives, and newspaper publishers. They also reviewed publicly available records, including some retrieved through Freedom of Information Act requests. The report concludes with a series of recommendations for the Mayor’s office, heads of city agencies, City Council members, and the Comptroller to try to redress the imbalance in advertising spending. “The Center has come up with a number of ways that public officials – both current and future – can address the problems identified in our research. We hope there will be a constructive dialogue with them in the future,” says Garry Pierre-Pierre, executive director of the Center. Funded by the Charles H. Revson Foundation, the report was researched and written by Professor Sarah Bartlett, director of the Urban Reporting program at the CUNY J-School, with the assistance of PierrePierre. n
DEAN’SCORNER Fond Farewell to those Newsweek Years
T
hey showed up, more than 300 strong. There were photographers from the time LBJ was president, reporters and writers from the Watergate era, top editors spanning more than 40 years. They all came to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism on Jan. 14 to pay tribute to Newsweek, the magazine they once worked for, the magazine that had just published its last print edition. Far from being a gloomy wake, the gathering was a joyful party, a celebration of a once-great magazine by the people who had made it so. Nobody cursed the Internet or blamed this editor or that boss. They just wanted to see old
friends and re-live the good old days. It was, after all, a reunion. I was one of them, a senior editor at Newsweek from 1976 to 1981, and when I heard that a bunch of alums from my era had decided they couldn’t let Newsweek magazine just disappear without lifting a glass in loving memory, I offered the CUNY J-School as the venue. And I proposed that we honor Newsweek, and keep its name alive for future generations, in the most personal way I could think of: by offering a prize to a graduating student who best exemplifies the values, spirit, and excellence of Newsweek.
I’m delighted to report that many staffers have kicked in, and we have so far raised about $40,000, in just a few weeks. And so on May 13, at the School’s annual dinner, we will award the first “Newsweek Magazine Alumni Prize” to a CUNY J-School graduate. I’m looking forward with special pleasure to greeting the winner.
Stephen B. Shepard Dean, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
JENNY MARC, SKYLER REID
Lynn Povich, Newsweek’s first female senior editor, signs the last issue of the magazine; Paris-based New York Times correspondent Elaine Sciolino (left) embraces former Newsweek editor Susan Fraker after her speech; former Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker addresses the alumni.
Matthew Goldstein Chancellor, The City University of New York
Stephen B. Shepard Dean Judith Watson Associate Dean
BOARD OF ADVISERS Dean Baquet
Howard Rubenstein
Managing Editor of The New York Times
President of Rubenstein Associates
Merrill Brown
Vivian Schiller
Director, School of Communications and Media Montclair State University
David Carey
President of Hearst Magazines
Connie Chung
TV Journalist and Anchor
Jared Kushner
Chief Digital Officer of NBC News Arthur Siskind Senior Adviser to News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch
Richard Stengel
Managing Editor of Time Elizabeth Vargas “20/20” Anchor, ABC News
Publisher of The New York Observer
David Westin
Adam Moss
Mark Whitaker
Editor-in-chief of New York Magazine
Michael Oreskes
Senior Managing Editor at the Associated Press John Paton CEO of Digital First Media
Norman Pearlstine
Chief Content Officer at Bloomberg News
CEO of News Licensing Group Former Managing Editor of CNN Worldwide and Former Editor of Newsweek
Matthew Winkler
Editor-in-Chief of Bloomberg News
Mortimer Zuckerman
Chairman and Publisher of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report
INSIDESTORY John Smock Photographer Nancy Novick Designer
vol . 7 ,more no . 2information For
By Corrie Lacey Class of 2013
E
lis Estrada knew local news was her passion even before she became a student at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in the fall of 2010. Born in Mexico and raised in Raleigh, N.C., she had spent a year assisting low-income families in Brooklyn as an AmeriCorps member and was greatly dismayed at the lack of media coverage in their neighborhoods. Today, she has not one but two jobs that fulfill her passion: covering news at the 24-hour cable channel NY1 and teaching secondary-school students how to sort through information at the News Literacy Project. Estrada’s entrée into NY1 was through her summer internship, a requirement for all CUNY J-School students. She continued interning for the station in her third semester and upon graduating, she applied for a writer position – and got it. Now she is associate producer for the consumer investigative unit, NY1 for You, responsible for assembling two story packages a week. Estrada provided much of NY1’s coverage on Superstorm Sandy – and is still focusing her attention on the aftermath. Many of her stories concentrate on landlord issues, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activities, repairs, and insurance. Estrada also works with NY1’s education reporter, producing breaking news and enterprise stories about New York City’s public education system. It was her interest in education that brought her to the News Literacy Project, where she serves as New York program assistant, helping middle school and high school
Estrada shoots in Rockaway Beach, Queens for NY1.
students decipher fact from fiction. The organization believes it’s important in today’s digital age to teach children to consume and create credible information. Estrada works 20 hours a week with De La Salle Academy in Manhattan and Edward R. Murrow High School in Brooklyn, sharing her experience as a journalist and taking the students on media-related field trips (most recently, on a tour of the 60 Minutes studio at CBS). Estrada credits the CUNY J-School with teaching her the skills she uses daily, such as framing, shooting, editing, and writing for TV. It also helped her to understand what makes a story newsworthy. “CUNY prepared me to handle anything thrown at me,” she said. Estrada encourages budding journalists to be a voice for others. “I thought it was important to direct my focus on communities that aren’t getting a lot of coverage” she said. “I think CUNY students should consider that too.” n
about the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, go to our website: www. journalism.cuny.edu
SPRING 2013
SUSAN JHUN
Amy Dunkin Editor Corrie Lacey Reporter
ON THE JOB with Elis Estrada ‘11
3
SCHOOLNOTES ALUMNI NEWS Class of ’12: Anika Anand is a writer for GothamSchools. Evan Buxbaum is contributing editor at Circa. Melissa Bykofsky got her job on commencement day (Dec. 13) as editorial assistant at Marie Claire. Sean Carlson landed a job in Ketchikan, Alaska as a reporter at KRBD radio. Althea Chang is the research analyst at CNBC.com for a web video program. Thomas DiChristopher is a breaking news associate at CNBC. Tristan Hallman is working as a night reporter at The Dallas Morning News. Sarah Kazadi is an assistant producer for CBS Sports Network. Lindsay Lowe is editorial assistant at Parade magazine. Sarah Pizon is a freelance correspondent and anchor for France24 English. Patricia Rey Mallén is working at The International Business Times. Orlando Rodriguez is a Real Estate Weekly reporter. Chester Soria is working freelance as a Gotham Gazette city government reporter. Emma Thorne is an MSNBC production assistant. Alexander Tucciarone is a production coordinator at ABC Nightline. Michelle (Friedman) Turner moved to Washington state where she is working as a freelancer. Colin Weatherby is working as an editorial assistant at Fast Company magazine. Class of ’11: Jose Bayona is online communication man-
ager at ProMujer and also teaching web video production at Hofstra University. Patrick Clark is covering small business at Bloomberg Businessweek. Kirsti Itameri is a multimedia producer at WNET. Zachary Kussin is web producer for The Real Deal magazine. Annais Morales is the control room producer at NY1 News. An Phung is news associate at NBC Local Integrated Media. Amy Stretten is a multimedia journalist for Seminole Media Productions. Class of ’10: Anne Byrnes is the web content producer at WATE-TV Knoxville, Tenn. Megan (Finnegan) Bungeroth is editor-in-chief of NYPress.com and Our Town Downtown. Christine Prentice is a reporter at Thomson Reuters. Walter Smith-Randolph is lead reporter at WEYI NBC in Flint, Mich. Class of ’09: Aisha Al-Muslim is a staff reporter at Newsday. Anastasia Economides is overnight web assistant at The New York Times. Carla Murphy is contributing editor for The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute and a producer at BrianLehrer TV. Maureen Sullivan is associate editor at the McMahon Publishing Group. Nicole Turso is a speechwriter for Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. Class of ’08: Eliot Caroom is Bloomberg’s energy markets reporter, covering oil refineries and pipelines. AnnMarie
A New Course in Mobile Journalism
T
INSIDESTORY
David Ho
Class of ’07: Andrew Greiner won an Emmy with his team for NATO coverage while he was managing editor at NBCChicago.com. Dmitry Kiper is online editor at the NBC News national desk. Georgia Kral is features editor at amNewYork. Benjamin Levisohn is columnist at Barron’s and lead writer for the Emerging Markets Daily blog. Marlene Peralta is working at El Diario-La Prensa.
FACULTY NEWS
Health & Science Reporting Director Emily LaberWarren’s A Walk in the Woods: Into the Field Guide, an introduction to nature for young children, is scheduled for release in April. Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo by Prof. Margot Mifflin (co-director, Arts & Culture Reporting) came out in its third edition. Stories featured on the NYCity News Service are finalists for 15 SPJ Region 1 Mark of Excellence Awards. The winners will be announced in mid-April.
His course is one of the first of its kind at a graduate journalism program, and it has quickly become apparent that the topic cannot be ignored. Next year, mobile devices are expected to overtake desktops and laptops as the primary way people go online for news and information. “The news industry was caught flat-footed when the Internet first hit the mainstream and in no time altered how our audience interacts with the news. Now smartphones and tablets are beginning to disrupt the way news is reported, produced, consumed, and shared,” said Sandeep Junnarkar, director of the CUNY J-School’s Interactive Journalism Program. Among the goals of the mobile course are to give students an understanding of the app development process, including instruction in using tools to create a basic news app and ways to customize their storytelling for mobile products. “I expect our students to become leaders in newsrooms,” Junnarkar said, “as these pervasive devices begin to dictate production and presentation of news.” n
SANDEEP JUNNARKAR
hings you should know about mobile apps: They’re not always connected to the web. They can work really well and really badly, depending on the development choices made by the people who built them. Oh, and they’re the future of journalism. Many news organizations have seen a surge in mobile consumers in the past year, with as much as half of traffic now coming from smartphones, iPads, Androids, Kindles, and the like. That’s not so surprising when you consider there are 7 billion people in the world and 6 billion mobile devices. Students have learned this and much more in a new 15-week course, Touching the Future of News: Mobile and Tablet Journalism. The instructor, David Ho, a longtime national reporter and media technology pioneer, is editor for mobile, tablets and emerging technology at The Wall Street Journal.
Costella is press secretary for NY State Sen. Malcolm Smith. Carl Winfield is managing editor at Foundation & Endowment Intelligence for Euromoney Institutional Investor.
A LESSON IN LIGHTING
CUNY Graduate School of Journalism 219 W. 40th Street, Third Floor New York, NY 10018
SKYLER REID
Students in Jennifer S. Altman’s Photojournalism class learn how to light a subject to create a more dynamic image. Here they’re using backlights and a gel for red background color to give the photo added dimension. The model is teaching assistant Zara Katz from the Class of 2012, who is completing a fourth semester at the CUNY J-School. Photojournalism, also taught by veteran news photographer John Smock, and New York Times Lens blog editor James Estrin, is a hands-on course that builds on basic photo, audio, and visual storytelling skills introduced in the first-semester Fundamentals of Multimedia Storytelling. An advanced photo course is offered in the third semester.