Missouri Business Alert receives Kaufman grant

Missouri Business Alert, a digital business journalism newsroom housed at the University of Missouri School of Journalism, has received a grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation for the seventh straight year.

The $750,000 grant comes as the newsroom marks its tenth year covering news and entrepreneurship in Missouri.

Previous grants from the Kauffman Foundation have totaled more than $1.2 million over six years. This year’s grant, which will be disbursed over three years, nearly doubles that total, bringing it to roughly $2 million.

In addition to improving educational programming and increasing coverage of business news throughout the state, the grant will allow Missouri Business Alert to hire an additional full-time staff member, bringing the total to four on top of the newsroom’s student journalists.

““The Kauffman Foundation’s grant is right on time as we celebrate our 10th birthday,” said Randy Smith, founder and publisher of Missouri Business Alert and the Donald W. Reynolds Endowed Chair in Business Journalism, in a statement. “Kauffman saw and believed in Missouri Business Alert and Mizzou students in the early days, helping to launch over 400 students into business journalism careers. The foundation’s generosity allowed us to create the only news platform that provides statewide coverage of Missouri’s business community.”

The grant supports a newsroom that has helped students launch careers at Bloomberg, CNBC, the Associated Press and other news organizations. Missouri Business Alert is one of six professional news outlets — including an NBC affiliate, an NPR member station, and a community newspaper — and two strategic communication agencies at the School of Journalism where students practice what they’ve learned in the classroom.