Alex S. Jones '68 funds internships

Two journalism students a year will work at fully paid internships thanks to the generosity of Alex S. Jones ’68.

Jones has provided an initial gift of $30,000 to support students in the summer of 2007, 2008 and 2009. Because many internships are unpaid, the Alex S. Jones Internships expand internship opportunities for students in the department.

"We are deeply grateful to Alex Jones, on behalf of our students and on behalf of the journalism profession, department head Brian Richardson said. "His generosity helps ensure that talented young people will be guided into careers in newsrooms."

Journalism majors in the business, electronic and print sequences are eligible to apply for the internships. Journalism department faculty will select each year’s recipients. Honorees must serve their internships in print, broadcast or online newsrooms.

Internships are required for print, broadcast and business-journalism majors. Students must work at least 300 hours to receive three credits, and keep a daily journal during the summer. In the fall, they submit the journal and a portfolio of their work, write a 10-page paper about their experience, and make an oral presentation to fellow students and faculty.

Jones is director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. He covered the press for The New York Times from 1983-92 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. In 1991, he co-authored (with Susan E. Tifft) The Patriarch: The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty.

In 1992 Jones left the Times to work on The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind the New York Times (also co-authored with Tifft), which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award. He has been a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, a host of National Public Radio's On the Media, and host and executive editor of PBS's Media Matters.