New fund to support Missouri Business Alert and New York Program at Missouri School of Journalism
COLUMBIA, Mo. (May 28, 2024) — Family and friends of Randall Smith, the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism, are raising money for a fund that will support the Missouri News Network’s digital business news outlet, Missouri Business Alert. The fund will also help students access opportunities in New York City through the School’s New York Program and other shorter-term trips.
“Missouri Business Alert and the New York Program offer students hands-on opportunities to plug into the worlds of business media at local, statewide and national levels,” said David Kurpius, dean of the School of Journalism. “Expanding those opportunities through this fund is a fitting legacy for Randy, who has given so much to his students in his fifteen years at the School.”
Smith, who came to the School of Journalism in 2009 after three decades in both news and business roles at The Kansas City Star, is retiring this year. The fund will help ensure that the publication he founded in 2012 continues to cover the state’s business community while giving students valuable experiences in preparation for their careers.
For Smith, the payoff has always been seeing the widely varying success his students (nearly 600 at the latest count) achieve after graduating, and there has been no shortage in that department: former students now work at the likes of The Washington Post, Bloomberg and CNN, and some have started their own businesses.
Others, like Francesco Marconi, who earned dual master’s degrees in business and data journalism in 2012, have found success in multiple industries. Fresh out of school, he co-lead AI and automation at The Associated Press before becoming the inaugural R&D chief at the Wall Street Journal. He is now the CEO of his own company, and along the way he has published books on AI and career success.
Smith loves when his students experience that kind of success, but he wants to see even more.
“When I came to the School of Journalism, I had the opportunity to start my own consulting business, and I decided that wasn’t what I came here to do,” Smith said. “I came here to help students pay it forward. I do it for the joy of seeing student success, and this fund will help that continue by creating more experiential opportunities for students — things like getting paid summer jobs at Missouri Business Alert and getting a taste of real life in New York.”
The name of the game used to be competition — you wanted to beat Newspaper X or Radio Station Y. But the sea has changed. Instead of competition, it’s collaboration. We have that happening in the Missouri News Network, and we have that happening with Trulaske. That’s an important thing for students to experience.
Randall Smith
Indeed, experiential learning — known as the “Missouri Method” — is at the heart of Missouri Business Alert’s operations, with students not only writing but learning to produce podcasts and newsletters and hosting or participating in community events. One recent event, Connect in 8, brought students and other aspiring entrepreneurs together with business leaders in April for “speed networking” that saw participants meet a new business leader every eight minutes.
Smith sees these opportunities as not only offering students the chance to develop communication and production skills but also helping them build an important base of business knowledge. He recalled that during much of his time in news, reporters on the business beat often had little or no business education, which could sometimes harm relationships with potential sources. To this day, his sense of purpose in addressing that issue is unwavering.
“I’ve never believed in just going to a place and seeing what happens,” Smith said. “I’ve always gone to a place with an idea of building something, and that’s what I’ve done with my time here at the School. The idea has always been to create a fountain of great business journalism students coming out of here.”
Nor does Smith seek to send students to New York simply to “see what happens.” Inspired by the “short programs” he conducted in his time as a professor, in which he brought students on tours of business media organizations to network and learn about the types of jobs and careers that are possible in New York, he wants the fund to create opportunities both within the New York Program and through smaller-scale opportunities.
The dual purpose of the fund is also reminiscent of the collaborative, multidisciplinary approach of Missouri Business Alert and the broader Missouri News Network. Smith’s students often pursue MBAs in addition to journalism degrees, as is the case for Skyler Rossi, senior digital editor at Missouri Business Alert, who earned her bachelor’s degree from the School of Journalism in 2020 and is now pursuing an MBA from Mizzou’s Trulaske College of Business.
Whether it’s working with other professional newsrooms at the School of Journalism or dipping toes into the worlds of both business and news, Smith said students learn that good journalism is rarely a solitary endeavor.
“The name of the game used to be competition — you wanted to beat Newspaper X or Radio Station Y,” Smith said. “But the sea has changed. Instead of competition, it’s collaboration. We have that happening in the Missouri News Network, and we have that happening with Trulaske. That’s an important thing for students to experience.”
If journalism is collaborative, so, too, is fundraising: To learn more about how to contribute to the fund, click here.
Updated: June 7, 2024