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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Brant Houston, 573-882-2042

Dec. 5, 2000

Knight Foundation Grants $250,000 to IRE

Columbia, Mo. - Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. is receiving a $250,000 grant for general operating support in 2001 from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

The grant, which begins January 2001, will help IRE fund staff positions and the operations of its resource center of stories and tipsheets, its extensive Web site, and database library.

"This provides a great boost to our organization and will help us to help journalists everywhere," said Brant Houston, executive director.

IRE is in the midst of an endowment drive and the Knight Foundation's generous gift will relieve some of the pressure of annual fundraising for day-to-day costs and allow the board and staff to focus more time on the endowment drive.

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2000, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation makes national grants in journalism, education and arts and culture. Its fourth program, community initiatives, is concentrated in 26 communities where the Knight brothers published newspapers, but the foundation is wholly separate from and independent of those newspapers.

The Knight Foundation has supported IRE in the past, providing grants for minority fellowships for journalists to attend computer-assisted reporting "boot camps."

IRE is a professional association of about 4,500 members that provides training and resources to journalists both in the U.S. and internationally. It was formed in 1975 and is based at the Missouri School of Journalism.