The Journal

Issue date: 2/16/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Mariano Ulibarri

In the basement of a beige office building on Olive Boulevard, Charles Klotzer keeps a unique archive of St. Louis media history. The shelves are full of boxes containing old newspapers and magazines. Most importantly, the basement contains Klotzer's pride and joy - the archives of The St. Louis Journalism Review, a publication that has held local and national media moguls accountable for what they write and say.

But now, the review's era may be coming to an end, due to a budget crunch at Webster University, which funds SJR. Members of SJR's Board of Directors said discussions about the future of SJR have been ongoing for years.

Webster has supported SJR financially since 1995. Officially, the review is hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt to the university, which provides a subsidy of $50,000 to $60,000 per year. When SJR first came to Webster, Klotzer, who founded SJR in 1970, told administrators it would support itself within a few years. However, that never happened.

One solution the board is considering would be to shut down the print version of SJR and change it to an electronic product, such as a blog or Internet-only publication. Such a move would save significant amounts of money for the university, said Ed Bishop, editor and general manager of SJR. Printing costs make up about $7,000 per year, and the postage required to mail editions to subscribers makes up another $10,000, Bishop said.

Bishop is already expanding his talents into electronic forms of media. Last year, the media critic started a radio show on KDHX-FM called "Reality Now." Bishop has interviewed many famed media personalities on the show, including Walter Cronkite and Helen Thomas. He's also considering creating a TV show and a blog. Moving to a blog would also save on freelance costs, since contributing writers would not be paid.

Board member Debra Carpenter, dean of the School of Communications, said the SJR budget has been cut as much as possible already.

"Ed, bless his heart, has gone to the bone making do on a shoestring," Carpenter said. "There's nothing in his budget that he could cut back on and still produce a product."

Carpenter said one of the concerns about funding SJR is whether or not it makes the best use of student funds. About 90 percent of the university's budget comes from tuition.

Continued...

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