Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Newseum announces $52 million in gifts

WASHINGTON, May 23 — Eight major news media companies and families today announced that they will give $52 million to the building of the new Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Each of the donors will become a founding partner of the Newseum, and major galleries/venues will bear their names.

They are the following:

“We believe these generous gifts will strengthen significantly the Newseum’s efforts to help people understand the importance of the First Amendment and a free press.” said Charles L. Overby, chairman and CEO of the Newseum and the Freedom Forum. 

The Newseum, scheduled to open in the fall of 2007, is a $435 million project located next door to the Canadian Embassy and across Pennsylvania Avenue from the National Gallery of Art and the museums of the Smithsonian Institution.

 “This is the most ambitious effort ever to educate the public about the First Amendment and the important role of a free press in society,” said Alberto Ibargüen, chairman of the Newseum’s executive committee and president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. “This broad base of support underscores the importance of the Newseum’s mission.”

Overby said he expects other companies and families interested in news media and First Amendment issues to give another $50 million before the end of 2007 as part of the $100 million capital campaign.

About the founding partners

The New York Times Company, a media company with 2005 revenues of $3.4 billion, publishes The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Boston Globe and 15 other daily newspapers. The company also owns nine network-affiliated television stations and two New York radio stations. Over the years, The New York Times Company’s properties have been awarded many journalism awards, including 116 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization.

News Corporation is a diversified international media and entertainment company with operations in filmed entertainment, television, cable network programming, direct broadcast satellite television, magazines and inserts, newspapers, book publishing and more. Among its holdings are 20th Century Fox Film, FOX Broadcasting Company, Fox News Channel, STAR TV in Asia, Sky Italia and 175 newspapers, including the New York Post and The Times and The Sunday Times of London.

H.M. “Hank” Greenspun (1909-1989) had a celebrated career as a leading public advocate and crusading founder and publisher of the Las Vegas Sun daily newspaper. Under his leadership, the Sun was one of the first newspapers to denounce the unfairness and lack of proof underlying Sen. Joe McCarthy’s accusations of communist influence in the U.S. government. His son, Brian, is the CEO of the Greenspun Corporation and the editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies in the development, production, and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. Formed in May 2004 through the combining of NBC and Vivendi Universal Entertainment, NBC Universal owns and operates a portfolio of news and entertainment networks, a motion picture company, television production operations, a television stations group and theme parks. NBC Universal is 80% owned by General Electric, and 20% owned by Vivendi Universal.

Time Warner Inc. is a leading media and entertainment company, whose businesses include interactive services, cable systems, filmed entertainment, television networks and publishing.

Hearst Corporation is one of the nation’s largest diversified communications companies. Its major interests span more than 175 magazines, including Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine; 12 daily newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle; 28 television stations through Hearst-Argyle Television which reach a combined 18% of U.S. viewers; ownership in leading cable networks, including Lifetime, A&E, The History Channel and a portion of ESPN; as well as business publishing, Internet businesses, television production, newspaper features distribution and real estate.

ABC NEWS/Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise with four business segments: media networks, parks and resorts, studio entertainment and consumer products. ABC News is responsible for all of the ABC Television Network’s news programming on a variety of platforms: television, radio and the Internet. ABC News reaches an average audience of more than 215 million people in a given month.

The Pulliam family’s links to journalism go back to 1909 when Eugene C. Pulliam (1889-1975) and nine DePauw University classmates started a journalism fraternity (now the Society of Professional Journalists). Pulliam took over editing and publication of the Atchison (Kansas) Champion at age 23, becoming one of the youngest publishers of a daily newspaper in the country. During his career, he owned and operated 46 newspapers including The Indianapolis Star and The Arizona Republic. The six-decade journalism career of his son, Eugene S. Pulliam (1914-1999), included radio news director, reporter, editor and publisher. Today, the family remains active in journalism.

About the Newseum

When it opens in 2007, the Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — will offer visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

The Newseum will be located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America’s Main Street between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The exterior’s unique architectural features include a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front wall of glass through which passers-by will be able to watch the museum fulfilling its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other.

The Newseum will feature seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces and visitor services. It will offer a unique environment that takes museum-goers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.

About the Freedom Forum

The Freedom Forum, based in Arlington, Va., is a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three priorities: the Newseum, the First Amendment and newsroom diversity.

The Freedom Forum funds the operations of the Newseum, an interactive museum of news under construction in Washington, D.C.; the First Amendment Center; and the Diversity Institute. The First Amendment Center and the Diversity Institute are housed in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. The First Amendment Center also has offices in Arlington and the Diversity Institute has offices and programs at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

The Freedom Forum was established in 1991 under the direction of Founder Allen H. Neuharth as successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co. Its work is supported by income from an endowment of diversified assets.