New building takes shape - The Walter Cronkite School of ...

eynolds center
the donald
w. reynolds
Foundation
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, it is one
of the largest private foundations in the
United States.
Reynolds was the founder and principal
owners of the Donrey Media Group, which
he created in 1940 with the purchase of
the Okmulgee (Okla.) Daily Times and the
Southwest (Ark.) Times Record.
During his lifetime, Reynolds owned
and operated more than 100 businesses,
including newspapers, radio and television
stations and outdoor advertising.
The foundation funds a variety of
national programs that support aging
and quality of life issues, cardiovascular
research and journalism training. It
also funds programs such as charitable
food distribution, women’s shelters and
community centers at a regional level.
The foundation has invested heavily in
journalism education programs across the
country, creating the Donald W. Reynolds
Journalism Institute at the University of
Missouri School of Journalism, a Donald W.
Reynolds Nieman Fellowship in Community
Journalism at Harvard University, and the
Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business
Journalism at ASU.
The foundation also funds training
for high school journalism advisers
through a grant to the American Society
of Newspaper Editors. Each summer,
high school advisers are invited to a
college campus for two weeks of intensive
training and support. One of the three 2007
institutes took place at ASU.
For more information, go to
www.dwreynolds.org.
46 2007-2008
Reynolds Center goal:
improving business journalism
Andrew Leckey directs the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism at ASU.
Business journalism is the fast track
for today’s ambitious journalists,
and the Cronkite School is helping
to set the pace.
“Journalists who can not only write but
handle numbers are twice as valuable to
news organizations,” said Andrew Leckey,
director of the Donald W. Reynolds
National Center for Business Journalism.
“Our goal is to provide training to improve
the quality of business journalism in
America.”
The Reynolds Center moved to the
Cronkite School from the American Press
Institute in Reston, Va., in July 2006. The
three-year, $3.5 million grant was the
largest gift in the school’s history.
According to Steve Anderson, president
of the Las Vegas-based Donald W. Reynolds
Foundation, an added incentive for
moving to ASU, besides a quality school
and committed administration, was the
Cronkite School’s new building. When the
By Kenny Quihuis
school moves to downtown Phoenix in fall
2008, the Reynolds Center will have plenty
of room to expand its programs.
The center provides excellent resources
and new ideas in business journalism. For
example, in 2007 it initiated the Barlett &
Steele Awards in Investigative Business
Journalism, which carry the name of the
prominent investigative team that has won
two Pulitzer Prizes. First place will receive
$5,000 and the runner-up $2,000.
The Reynolds Foundation, funded by
the late media entrepreneur Donald W.
Reynolds, launched the center in 2003
after surveys found that journalists needed
specialized training in business reporting.
At the time, scandals involving Enron and
WorldCom attracted national attention
and spotlighted the need for well-trained
business reporters.