The Nieman Foundation is offering an exciting new research and study opportunity at Harvard: a short-term Visiting Fellowship for individuals wishing to work on special projects designed to advance journalism. Those who should consider applying include publishers, programmers, Web designers, media analysts, academics, journalists and others interested in enhancing quality, building new business models or designing programs to improve journalism. Successful applicants will be invited to the Nieman Foundation for a period ranging from a few weeks to several months, depending on the scope of the project. Read more
Sebastian Kleu, a former economics editor for the South African newspaper Die Burger who also served as chairman of the South African Board of Trade and Industry, has died. He was the second South African to be named as a Nieman Fellow and came to Harvard as a member of the class of 1962. Read more
Be the disruptor. That’s the clear message in the cover story for the new Fall issue of Nieman Reports in which renowned Harvard Business School professor Clayton M. Christensen, Canadian journalist David Skok, NF ’12, and Harvard Business Review contributor James Allworth apply Christensen’s theory of disruptive innovation to the news industry. By examining why and how successful businesses are undermined by start-ups, they tackle the issue so many news executives have tried to better understand: how to find viable revenue streams for journalism and alter outdated operational strategies for continued success. Read more
Three current Nieman Fellows have won journalism awards this fall for work done online and on air. Homicide Watch D.C., co-founded by Nieman Fellow Laura Amico and her husband Chris, took home the Knight Award for Public Service at the Online News Association’s annual conference in San Francisco. The couple received a standing ovation when the award was announced, a hard-earned reward after running the website out of their home for two years and struggling for funding. Accepting the award, Laura said “We mark every death, we remember every victim and we follow every case.” Chris noted, “For everyone who is on their own, building a business from the ground up, this one’s for you.” Read more
CBS News has brought on Holly Williams as a correspondent. Williams, who had been based in China and now lives in Turkey, is a veteran foreign correspondent, most recently for SKY News. She is a 2008 Nieman Fellow. Read more
Zwelakhe Sisulu, NF ’85, a South African opposition newspaper editor and anti-apartheid activist who was jailed several times in the 1970s and ’80s for speaking out against black oppression, died Oct. 4 at the age of 61. Read more
Three Nieman Fellows have been named to the National Association of Black Journalists’ Hall of Fame for their outstanding contributions to the industry. The new inductees are Betty Winston Bayé, NF ’91, longtime columnist for The (Louisville) Courier-Journal; Simeon Booker, NF ’51, the first black reporter at The Washington Post and Washington bureau chief for Jet Magazine; and Cynthia Tucker, NF ’89, Pulitzer-winning columnist for The Atlanta Journal Constitution. Read more
Robert Manning, an influential editor of The Atlantic Monthly and a 1946 Nieman Fellow, died of lymphoma at a hospital in Boston on Sept. 28, 2012. He was 92. Read more
