Washington, D.C., October 21, 1993 – A $4.5 million initiative to stimulate citizen involvement in community issues will bring together several major news organizations, electronic news media executives and university-based journalism experts.

The partnership, initiated by The Pew Charitable Trusts, is entitled “Renewing Our Democratic Heart.” It will employ both innovative elec-tronic technology and time-tested journalistic shoe leather reporting to fos-ter community problem-solving in at least 21 American cities over the next three years.

The project will employ a wide range of activities including town meetings and other kinds of forums to bring citizens together to spotlight community problems and encourage community-based solutions.

Major partners in the Pew-funded initiative are National Public Radio, the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation, and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Pew’s contacts with the partners will be coordinated by a new center to be established in Washington, D.C., and administered by the Medill School. Knight-Ridder, Inc., owner of newspapers in 27 U.S. cities, will work closely with the center and other initiative partners.

Edward M. Fouhy, who has held senior executive posts at all three television network news divisions and was executive producer of the 1992 Presidential debates, will be the center’s director.

The project will draw on the recent innovative efforts to stimulate community involvement undertaken by Knight-Ridder’s Wichita (KS) Eagle and the Charlotte (N.C.)Observer, in partnership with local commercial televi-sion stations. It will also draw on electronic town hall experiments in Chicago and a number of other cities.

“We are determined that the lessons learned and techniques in-vented by the pioneering news editors at Knight-Ridder’s Wichita and Charlotte newspapers will become the basis for other communities seeking to confront their problems, ” said Rebecca W. Rimel, Executive Director of the Trusts. “The Democratic Heart Initiative will make it possible for newspapers, radio and televi-sion stations in the selected cities to join to-gether and go forward with inno-vative journalism guided by the interests of their communities. We believe this will lead to a more robust and inclusive civic discourse in the search for solutions.”

“In too many American communities, the civic dialogue necessary for widely accepted solutions to social problems has broken down,” said James K. Batten, chairman and chief executive officer of Knight-Ridder, Incorporated. ” Our newspapers have no higher calling than to help spark a renewal of the dialogue. Our aim is to help people reconnect and take responsibility for the community’s fate. We believe this project holds exciting promise in the communities where we’ll work together and can be a model for many others.”

“I am delighted to head this effort to combat the apathy that has stifled and muted the civic dialogue so essential to solving the prob-lems plagu-ing communities large and small,” said Fouhy. “I look forward to working closely with editors and news directors who will be cooperating with us in the pivotal task of reviving genuine community dia-logue while also re-asserting the central role the news media play in setting the public agenda.”

Fifteen cities where Knight-Ridder owns newspapers will be selected for involvement in the project; National Public Radio’s initiative, involving NPR news programs and member stations in some three dozen cities, will include community issues forums, experiments in citizen-oriented reporting and collaboration with newspapers.

“We greatly appreciate Pew’s support of the NPR election project. Our idea is to combine the efforts of our national news team with the intense community involvement of local public radio stations to conduct a hands-on experiment in new journalistic methods,” said NPR News Editorial Director John Dinges.

The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation will hold train-ing sessions for local news directors, producers and other news executives interested in forging their own partnerships with other news outlets, as well as in prac-ticing the community-based reporting techniques that have stemmed from the successful newspaper-television-radio partnerships in Wichita and Charlotte.

“The Pew Initiative goes straight to the heart of our mission to promote excellence in journalism. We are proud to be a partner in this exciting new venture to enhance community dialogue,” said Eric Swanson, execu-tive director of the Foundation.

The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University will help coordinate the initiative and, with Northwestern’s Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy Studies, provide confer-ence sites and support from academicians in journalism and communica-tions.

“The news media are key to any effort to revitalize the way our democracy works,” said Medill Dean Michael Janeway. “We’re honored to be partners in this project, helping to bring fresh thinking and practical, tested techniques to the task of achieving the highest of ideals.”

The Pew Charitable Trusts support nonprofit activities in the areas of con-servation and the environment, culture, education, health and human services, public policy and religion. Through their grantmaking, the Trusts seek to encourage individual development and personal achievement, cross-disciplinary problem-solving and innovative, practical approaches to meet the changing needs of society.