$10,000 prize offered for news ideas

Detroit Media Partnership announced today IdeaQuest 2011, a contest with $10,000 in prize money for the two best ideas that help the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News better serve the community and help grow their audiences. 

Ideas might include improving news coverage (in print, digitally and other ways), helping others in our communities, ways to save people time and money or about doing business more effectively.  Ideas can be submitted in two categories -- employee and non-employee – at http://ideaquest.michigan.com.  The deadline for entries is midnight, March 31 and is open to anyone 18 years or older. 

Once submitted, ideas will be voted on from April 1 through April 14 by the public, and the top five vote-getters in each category will have the opportunity to pitch to the judging panel on April 29, why their idea should win.  The judges are:

    * Patrick Doyle, CEO/Domino's Pizza
    * Susie Ellwood, CEO/Detroit Media Partnership
    * Myron Maslowsky, Sr. VP Group Finance & Administration/ USA TODAY


"We are committed to getting as many ideas from as many sources as possible," said Susie Ellwood, CEO, Detroit Media Partnership.  "The best way for us to serve our community is to solicit feedback and understand what they want and need in this ever-changing media environment," she said.  

Click on the headline to read the full news release.

PD places second in readership poll

The Cleveland Plain Dealer posted the second highest readership for Sundays and third highest daily among newspapers in the country's 50 biggest metro areas, a new report shows.

The Sunday edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ranked first for the fourth consecutive year in a Scarborough Research survey that looks at how many adults in ma jor U.S. metropolitan center read their local newspapers.

The survey found that among 1,136,449 adults in the four-county Milwaukee area, on average 798,052, or 70.2%, read the Sunday edition of the Journal Sentinel. That is up from 69.7% last year. The Cleveland Plain Dealer posted the second-highest market penetration, at 61.3%.

Gary Meo, Scarborough's senior vice president for print and Internet sales, said newspapers with the highest penetration rates tend to be in markets that have some or all of these characteristics: colder climates, a well-educated population, an older population and little newspaper competition.

"My personal opinion is that certain newspapers are very good at covering their communities, and there is something about the culture perhaps that's interested in local news and local information and the newspaper just does the best job of doing that in a particular market,." Meo said.

The market penetration report measures how many people read the newspaper, not how many buy it. It includes people who, for instance, will pass the newspaper along to someone else in their household.

Percentage of adults who read Sunday editions
1. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 70.2%
2. Cleveland Plain Dealer: 61.3%
3. Newsday: 59.2%
4. Columbus Dispatch: 57.5%
5. San Antonio Express-News: 57.4%
6. Orlando Sentinel: 57.1%
7. Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News: 56.6%
8. Indianapolis Star: 56.2%
9. Washington Post: 53.2%
10. Kansas City Star: 52.9%

Percentage of adults who read daily editions:
1. Newsday: 50.1%
2. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 46.5%
3. Cleveland Plain Dealer: 43.2%
4. San Jose Mercury News: 41.6%
5. Portland Oregonian: 41.5%
6. Indianapolis Star: 39.5%
7. Florida Times-Union: 39.1%
8. Washington Post: 38.9%
9. Kansas City Star: 37.1%
10. San Francisco Chronicle: 36.8%

12 awarded Knight fellowships

Twelve U.S. journalists have been awarded John S. Knight Fellowships to study at Stanford during the 2007-08 academic year.

During their stay at the university, the fellows will pursue independent courses of study and participate in special seminars. The 2007-08 program marks the 42nd year that Stanford has offered fellowships for professional journalists.

The 12 U.S. fellows will join eight international fellows who were announced in March. Financial support for the U.S. fellows comes primarily from an endowment provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Financial support for the international fellows comes from sources that include the Knight Foundation, the Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Journalism Fund and Yahoo! Inc.

Following are the 2007-08 U.S. fellows and their principal areas of study:

Rick Attig, associate editor, the Oregonian: environmental, economic and political issues of climate change.

John Daley, reporter, KSL-TV, Salt Lake City: leadership in the age of global warming.

Elizabeth Dalziel, staff photographer/Beijing, Associated Press: intersection of art and news photography.

Steven Dudley, Andean bureau chief, Miami Herald, Bogotá, Colombia: Latin America's shift to the left and its implications for U.S. foreign policy.

Paul Kvinta, freelance writer, Atlanta: the deteriorating health of our planet.

Andrea Lewis, co-host/producer, "The Morning Show," KPFA Radio/Pacifica Radio Network, Berkeley, California: the role of alternative journalism in contemporary American culture and democracy.

Eric Pape, contributing writer, Newsweek and Newsweek International: the arts of war: how traumatic inspiration can inspire art and healing.

Daniel Sinker, publisher, Independents' Day Media, Chicago: new publishing models for independent media.

Matthew Stannard, reporter, San Francisco Chronicle: Islam and the West: dueling narratives in religion, politics, history and war.

Ruth Teichroeb, investigative reporter, Seattle Post-Intelligencer: social change and the role journalism plays in fostering reforms in public institutions.

Helen Ubiñas, columnist, Hartford Courant: the disparate effects of poverty, race and family dynamics on individual outcomes.

Rick Young, producer, Frontline, Washington: globalization and the restructuring of American capitalism.

The program received 83 applications for the U.S. fellowships and 132 applications for the international fellowships.

U.S. fellows were chosen by the Knight Fellowships Program Committee: Eavan Boland, Stanford professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program; Luis Fraga, Stanford associate professor of political science; Theodore Glasser, Stanford professor of communication; William B. Gould IV, Stanford professor emeritus of law; George Haj, deputy managing editor, Houston Chronicle; Ardith Hilliard, executive editor, The Morning Call (Allentown, Pa.); James Mallory, senior managing editor/vice president-news, Atlanta Journal-Constitution; Norman Naimark, Stanford professor of history; and Rita Williams, reporter, KTVU-TV, Oakland.

International fellows

Following is a list of the 2007-08 international Knight fellows, who were announced in March, and their principal areas of study:

Denis Burgierman, editor in chief, Superinteressante magazine, São Paulo, Brazil: freedom of the press and democratization of information.

Violet Gonda, producer and presenter, SW Radio Africa (London), Zimbabwe (Yahoo! International Fellow): development of media in emerging democracies.

Ezequiel Lopez Blanco, investigation and special coverage editor, Clave magazine, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (Knight Foundation Latin American Fellow): economic power and a free press in Latin America.

Janine Perrett, editor/writer, The Business Network—a sponsored supplement to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age (Melbourne)—Sydney, Australia: U.S. business trends and their impact globally, in particular on the media industry.

Robert Rakipllari, editor in chief, Panorama newspaper, Tirana, Albania (Lyle and Corrine Nelson International Fellow): sociopolitical trends in emerging Eastern European democracies, and their relation to the European Union and international organizations.

Susanna Schultz, infographic editor and news columnist, Svenska Dagbladet, Stockholm, Sweden: the state of environmental journalism in developing countries, and the history and current state of applied leadership.

Gabor Vajda, technology reporter, Index.hu, Budapest, Hungary: citizen participation, virtual universes and community sites—new challenges and new tools in online journalism.

Wang Wei, producer and anchor, Shanghai Media Group, Shanghai, China: freedom of expression, and comparison of American and Chinese media-ethics codes.

13 named Knight-Wallace Fellows

The University of Michigan Knight-Wallace Fellows program has named 13 American journalists for the academic year 2007-2008. Additional international fellows will be designated in June.

While on leave from regular duties, Knight-Wallace Fellows pursue custom-designed sabbatical studies and attend special, twice-weekly seminars at Wallace House, a gift from newsman Mike Wallace and his wife Mary. The group named for the coming academic year is the 35th to be offered fellowships by the University of Michigan.

Each Knight-Wallace Fellow receives all academic fees and a stipend of $55,000, supported by gifts from foundations, news organizations and individuals committed to improving the quality of information reaching the public.

Professor Charles R. Eisendrath, who directs the program, is a former foreign correspondent for Time Magazine with broad experience in print, broadcast and online journalism.

U.S. fellows and their study projects are:

Jamaal Abdul-Alim, education reporter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The Impact of Incentives on Student Achievement.

Carol Ann Alaimo, military writer, Arizona Daily Star, Challenges Facing the U.S. Military.

Kevin Clemens, editor at large and columnist, European Car Magazine, Solving America’s Automobile Related Transportation Energy Needs.

Tracy Davis, reporter, The Ann Arbor News, Globalization and World Ecology.

Steve Edwards, host, WBEZ (Chicago Public Radio), How Latino Immigrants Reshape American Politics, Economics and Culture.

Miles Harvey, freelance, The Missing Link between Men and Apes.

Colleen Kenney, reporter, Lincoln Journal Star, Applying Poetry Techniques to Narrative Writing.

Kate Linebaugh, reporter, The Wall Street Journal, Asia’s Wealth Gap: Capital, Consumption and Inequality.

Matthew Moyer, freelance photographer, Documentary Films and Building a Photo Agency.

Ronald Pereira Parsons, assistant managing editor and director of production, Yahoo! News, The Role of Automation and Technology in the Next Generation of Online Journalism.

Rochelle Riley, columnist, Detroit Free Press, How Multimedia Empires are Built.

Brad Schrade, reporter, The Tennessean, The Intersection of Money and Politics.

Sam Skolnik, reporter, Las Vegas Sun, The Rise of Problem Gambling in America.

10 get Knight-Bagehot grants

Ten Knight-Bagehot Fellows in economics and business journalism have been named by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism for the 2007-2008 academic year.

The mid-career fellowships provide full tuition and a living stipend of $50,000 for experienced journalists to take graduate courses at Columbia’s schools of business, law, and international and public affairs. Fellows also attend special seminars at the journalism school led by scholars and business experts during the nine-month program, which begins in August. The program is open to journalists with at least four years experience.

This year’s fellows are: Jeremy Caplan of Time Magazine, Jose Eduardo Teixeira Costa of VOCÊ S/A, Dimitra DeFotis of Barron’s, Jim Edwards of Brandweek, Allison Fass of Forbes, Liza Featherstone of The Nation, Paul Glader of The Wall Street Journal, Greg Griffin of The Denver Post, Leoneda Inge of North Carolina public radio station, WUNC, and Bryan Myers of the PBS newsmagazine program, “NOW.”

Founded in 1975, the fellowships are named for John S. and James L. Knight, brothers who established the Knight Foundation, and Walter Bagehot, the 19th-century British economist and editor of The Economist. They are administered by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and directed by Terri Thompson, a former associate editor of U.S. News & World Report and former reporter for Business Week.

[Source: Jim Romensko in Poynter Forums.]

Click on the headline to see brief biogs on winners.

Knight News Challenge winners due May 23

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will announce the first-year winners of the Knight News Challenge on May 23 at the Interactive Media Conference & Tradeshow in Miami, hosted by Editor & Publisher and Mediaweek.

The Knight News Challenge – a contest open to anyone, anywhere – offers $25 million over five years in awards for news experiments that use digital media to build communities in specific geographic areas. The first year’s winners range from individuals to corporations and were chosen from among 1,650 applicants after recommendations by a panel of experts in digital media. They will receive a total of $12 million, including several multi-year awards. Applications for the 2007 round can be submitted at www.newschallenge.org starting July 1.

A press release about the winners will be released on May 23, the day of the announcement.

Knight Foundation is a sponsor of the Interactive Media Conference & Tradeshow 2007, an annual forum for new media issues attended by media representatives from the business and editorial side. More information is available at www.interactivemediaconference.com.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of 26 communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation supports ideas and projects that create transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfdn.org.