CHAMPAIGN, Ill. Two journalism students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have been named Dow Jones Newspaper Fund copy-editing interns.
The two are among 27 interns placed at 23 Knight Ridder newspapers and the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service this summer.
Cindy Gierhart, Aurora, is working for The State in Columbia, S.C., and Lee Kathryn Rawles, White Heath, is working at the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune. Gierhart graduated in May from Illinois; Rawles is a senior.
“Recruiting and retaining good copy editors are among our top priorities,” said Jerry Ceppos, Knight Ridder vice president/news. “We are pleased to sponsor these future journalists for additional specialized training, and to offer them on-the-job experience at our newspapers.”
After two weeks of training at either the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill or San Jose State University, interns were assigned to paid internships of 10 weeks or more. Individual newspapers pay their salaries. The Newspaper Fund will give a $1,000 scholarship to each student returning to college in the fall.
The Dow Jones Newspaper Fund, a nonprofit foundation supported by the Dow Jones Foundation and other newspaper companies, encourages young people to consider journalism careers.
Knight Ridder is the nations second-largest newspaper publisher, with products in print and online. The company publishes 32 daily newspapers in 28 U.S. markets, with a readership of 8.5 million daily and 12.1 million Sunday.
