One of business journalism’s most prominent leaders, former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger, has pledged $5,000 to the Society of American Business Editors and Writers’ current fund-raising campaign in an unusual “challenge within a challenge.”
SABEW is seeking $50,000 to match a $50,000 challenge grant from four prestigious donors – The Ford Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the McCormick Foundation and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation. The society must raise that amount by the end of July.
Steiger has promised to donate $5,000 to the drive if SABEW matches that amount. This means donors who give to the society’s campaign now will see their gift matched twice.
“Recently, I’ve attended SABEW meetings and found them to be very useful for journalists of varying experience in these scary times,” Steiger said. “The atmosphere is one of problem-solving rather than hand-wringing.”
Greg McCune, the society’s president, hailed Steiger’s support.
“Paul believes it is important to act now to maintain and strengthen business journalism in the face of a global financial crisis and media transformation,” McCune said. “SABEW’s work in advocating for strong, vibrant, comprehensive and ethical coverage of business, finance and the economy is an important part of this cause.”
Steiger is the CEO/editor-in-chief and founder of the ProPublica investigative journalism site. He led The Wall Street Journal to 16 Pulitzer Prizes as managing editor of the paper and its international editions from 1991 to 2007.
In January of 2008, he launched New York-based ProPublica a non-profit, non-partisan organization that does investigative journalism in the public interest.
Steiger is chairman of the Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based non-profit founded in 1981 to promote press freedom by working for the rights of journalists worldwide. He is also a trustee of the Knight Foundation, based in Miami, which supports transformative programs in fields including journalism and community development.
He graduated in 1964 from Yale University.
The society plans to use the $100,000 from the foundations and its fund drive to completely revamp its technology. This upgrade will enable it to offer streaming and advanced resources for membership services, to manage its affairs more efficiently, to become more flexible and to incorporate a wide variety of other improvements.
SABEW, formed in 1964, has grown to become the largest organization of business journalists in the world, with more than 3,000 members.
