Kiplinger Gift Supports Porgram

   COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University has received a gift of $2 million from the Washington, D.C.-based Kiplinger Foundation. The gift will augment the existing endowment supporting the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism, a mid-career master's degree program for professional journalists at the School of Journalism and Communication, which is part of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

The funds, which will increase the endowment to more than $5.5 million by 2004, will ensure that the Kiplinger Program can support at least eight journalists each year. In addition, the new funds will underwrite an improved Kiplinger Program Report, an annual publication distributed to major publications and broadcasters. Kips devote two academic quarters to the production of this report, which investigates a single major policy issue each year.

"We look forward to the sustained growth of the Kiplinger program, a true jewel in the crown of Ohio State and an initiative in which we take great pride," said Ohio State President William E. Kirwan. "We are also very proud of our association with the Kiplinger family. Thanks to their vision, leadership, and faith in our partnership, the university and its journalism and communication programs continue to advance with strength and vigor."

"We have been heartened by what we see as the strengthening of leadership within both the School of Journalism and Communication and the Kiplinger Program," said Knight Kiplinger, grandson of W. M. Kiplinger and president of The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc. "We sense that Carroll Glynn (director, School of Journalism and Communication) and Pamela Hollie (Kiplinger Professor) have the desire, talent and energy to revitalize both the School and the Kiplinger Program, helping to make them even more of a credit to Ohio State and The Kiplinger Foundation than they already are."

The Kiplinger Program was established at Ohio State in 1971 by Austin Kiplinger to honor his father, W. M. Kiplinger, a 1912 Ohio State journalism graduate. Designed to help develop journalistic expertise, the program provides financial assistance of $20,000, in addition to tuition, fees, support for an individual project, and an annual policy research trip to Washington, D.C., for that year's group of Kips.

The program allows Kiplinger Fellows, who are selected in the spring of each year, to explore a wide range of public affairs and public policy topics. Past Kiplinger fellows have used the year to become more knowledgeable in business coverage or international affairs and many have produced marketable, groundbreaking journalism.

"For the past two years, we've worked with members of the Kiplinger family and Foundation to find creative ways to bring this program to new levels of excellence," Glynn said. "This will allow student-journalists to deepen their understanding of economic, business, technological, and societal issues."

In addition to the Kiplinger program, the Kiplinger endowment supports the Kiplinger Professorship, currently held by Hollie, a veteran journalist who began her career at The Wall Street Journal and later became a national and foreign correspondent and columnist for The New York Times. The ninth director of the Kiplinger Program at Ohio State, Hollie has held the position since September 1999.

"The Kiplinger Foundation has made an invaluable contribution to journalism and the training of professional journalists, many of whom are award-winning reporters and editors," Hollie said.

Former Kips have worked for such institutions as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Baltimore Sun, The Chicago Tribune, The Cleveland Plain-Dealer, The Columbus Dispatch, The New York Times, The San Francisco Examiner, Newsweek, Newsday, the Associated Press, and networks such as CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC.

The Kiplinger Foundation in Washington D.C. is the grant-making arm of The Kiplinger Washington Editors, Inc., publishers of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, the nation's first magazine about personal money management, which currently has a circulation of 1 million. The Foundation has supported the Ohio State journalism program through the endowment and, in recent years, through annual gifts to supplement endowment income.

For additional information, Contact:

* Pamela Hollie, Kiplinger Professor and director, the Kiplinger Program, The Ohio State University, (614) 292-2607 or hollie.2@osu.edu.

* Roger Addleman, director, Development Communications, The Ohio State University, (614) 292-3647 or addleman.1@osu.edu.

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