Check, please!

A hearty congratulations to three McCormick Tribune journalism grantees recently chosen for the inaugural round of digital journalism grants from the Knight Foundation News Challenge. Only 25 of the more than 1,500 groups and individuals that applied were selected to receive grants for cutting edge projects in digital journalism. According to the Knight Foundation, the winners proposed innovative strategies for leveraging digital news to build community. These range from individual blogging grants to building networks of citizen journalists to cover a large metropolitan city.

Among the winners, the MTF grantees included:

• School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kansas State University: Will serve as an incubator as one of seven universities to explore solutions to digital news problems.
• Dori Maynard of the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education: Received a $15,000 grant to blog on diversity issues in digital media.
• Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University: Rich Gordon was awarded $639,000 to found a scholarship program designed to train computer scientists in journalism to address the need for talented tech-people at media companies.

The Knight Foundation will award $25 million during a five-year span "to help lead journalism into its digital future." For more information on the News Challenge and a complete project and winners list, check out: http://www.newschallenge.org/winners/