News and Progress

Reynolds Foundation funds chair in business journalism

Dec. 11, 2008

Columbia Missourian reporters Chad Day and Emily Van Zandt review information in the Reynolds Room on the third floor of the Reynolds Journalism Institute, which was established with $32 million from the Reynolds Foundation. The Reynolds Foundation recently awarded the J-School a $2 million grant to fund an endowed chair in business journalism.

In these historic economic times, a strong understanding of financial and economic issues is important for everyone, especially for the journalists who report on the topic. To help train journalists, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation has awarded a $2 million grant to the Missouri School of Journalism to establish the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism.

“We thank the Reynolds Foundation for its vision and generosity,” said Dean Mills, dean of the School. “Today’s complex financial structures demand journalists who have the knowledge and training to interpret business issues for citizens.”

The new chair will allow the J-School to expand business journalism course offerings at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. Through partnerships with other schools and colleges at MU and with professional organizations, the chair will help develop a well-rounded, interdisciplinary business journalism curriculum.

“This endowed chair at the University of Missouri is part of a much larger initiative approved by our trustees and recently funded," says Fred W. Smith, chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation. "Within that initiative, a network of Reynolds-funded institutions led by the Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University will collaborate to increase the presence of business journalism curriculum on university campuses while also providing strong training for midcareer journalists who realize their own need for a better understanding of financial and economic issues.  The historic economic events of the past year have shown clearly that this effort is needed more now than ever before.”

Donald W. Reynolds received his bachelor’s degree from the J-School in 1927. The Donald W. Reynolds Foundation is a national philanthropic organization founded in 1954 by the late media entrepreneur for whom it is named. Headquartered in Las Vegas, Nev., it is one of the largest private foundations in the U.S. Through a $32 million gift from the foundation, MU established the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, a world-class center for researching and testing new models of journalism.