Grantee Profiles

Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources: Enhancing the Depth of Press Coverage

Frank Allen enjoyed his work as the first environmental editor at the Wall Street Journal -- mostly. "It was an exhilarating experience, but also an exasperating one," he says. "It's the overarching beat, and that will be true into the next century." But he found that newsroom managers had an aversion to the beat because of its complexity.

He knew reporters across the country were having similar experiences. "Someone had to do something to encourage journalists to hang in there," he says. So when he left the Journal and moved to Montana, he set about building "a community where these journalists and future journalists who want to commit themselves to reporting professionally on these topics for a long time could share fellowship experiences as well as learning experiences."

Allen drew on his work at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism at Maryland, but he added a twist. He says, "I thought it would be more fun to get people outdoors and experience a journey."

Allen is the president and executive director of Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources (IJNR) in Missoula, Montana. Participants ride buses around various parts of the country for eight days at a time, sharing hotel rooms, camping out, immersing themselves in regional environmental issues and meeting potential sources. IJNR currently operates six regional institutes. The Brainerd Foundation has given IJNR grant dollars for its Pacific Northwest and High Country institutes.

Participants come from radio, television, magazine and newspaper newsrooms across the country. "We're trying to adjust attitudes in newsrooms about how coverage should be done, and our converts are the people who have gone on our trips," Allen says.

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