The new Institute of Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis and the soon-to-launch non-profit Memphis online news source The Daily Memphian are partnering to provide independent journalism for the city of Memphis.
The Institute of Public Service Reporting will allow U of M students to work with Memphis journalists to provide them with experience in reporting and investigative journalism. The Institute has formed a partnership with The Daily Memphian where the news outlet will publish articles written by U of M students.
Marc Perrusquia, former investigative reporter with The Commercial Appeal, is the director of the Institute.
“Our vision is to have a small newsroom here of about four or five professionals who will do investigative and in-depth enterprise reporting, who will also work with graduate assistants as interns/apprentices,” Perrusquia said. “These students can learn, hands-on, the ropes of journalism in a real working environment.”
Students in the institute will have the chance to write as well as the opportunity to have their work published. Perrusquia said the Institute has a contract with The Daily Memphian that allows them to publish any work created by students, and the institute intends to create relationships with radio, television and podcasting groups. He also said he plans to work with students from other fields of study to help get them published.
“The goal is to also perhaps work with history students or sociology; anyone who is interested will develop a goal for publication,” Perrusquia said. “Publication is the goal.”
The Daily Memphian is an upcoming online newspaper created by a group of local journalists and media professionals. The paper’s goal is to provide increased coverage of local news.
The Daily Memphian is operated by the Memphis Fourth Estate Fund, which has been organized for the purpose of gathering and disseminating information in a nonpartisan manner about crucial public policy issues and matters of importance to Memphis residents and to fund the new media venture and will be funded with donations.
James Overstreet, the associate publisher and executive editor for The Daily Memphian, said he believes Memphians want intelligent, deeply reported, locally-focused and locally-produced news. He said he believes the partnership with the institute will be beneficial.
“(Marc Perrusquia)’s work over the past three decades in Memphis speaks for itself,” Overstreet said. “There is nobody local nearly as talented as he is. His investigative journalism will give The Daily Memphian something no other outlet in Memphis has.”
Otis Sanford, a columnist and reporter for The Daily Memphian and U of M journalism professor, will be a part of the institute’s advisory board. He said Memphis needs more public service journalism.
“I believe in public service journalism,” Sanford said. “There’s not enough of it going on here in Memphis right now just because the main newspaper has cut its staff so much that we just don’t have the robust investigative, public service, explanatory journalism going on in Memphis that we need, and we think this will help fill some of those gaps.”
Sanford said the partnership will be a mechanism for helping to get students published.
“They will get hands-on experience about how to do this kind of work, and the training, I think, will be tremendous,” Sanford said. “This is going to be a teaching tool in addition to being a journalism tool.”
The Daily Memphian is set to have an opening celebration Sept. 28 at an currently unannounced location to mark their beginning. Along with Sanford, many graduates of the U of M’s Journalism and Strategic Media department are set to join as staff members.
