COLUMBIA Journalism School's Existential Crisis

(From NY Magazine.com)

The media bloodbath hasn't made for happy days at COLUMBIA JOURNALISM SCHOOL.

When THE NEW YORK TIMES recently announced that its new, hyperlocal blog experiment THE LOCAL would be assisted by journalism students not from Columbia but from the City University of New York, you could practically hear the collective gasp echoing in the hallowed halls uptown.

CUNY?

Since when does CUNY trump Columbia?

Well, since digital journalism became the single ray of hope on an otherwise dark media horizon, and Columbia's vaunted ability to train students as print reporters began to appear obsolete.

And so the school is trying to change. Fast.

Beginning in August, Columbia will offer a revamped, digitally focused curriculum designed to make all students as capable of creating an interactive graphic as they are of pounding out 600 words on a community-board meeting.

The force behind the change is former WSJ.com managing editor BILL GRUESKIN, the school's new dean of academic affairs.

"We've gotten pretty good at teaching the skills," he says of Columbia's new media chops, "but in terms of understanding the integration of those skills into the creation and distribution of journalism, I don't think we're where we need to be right now."

Columbia Journalism School's Existential Crisis