The Ford Foundation has awarded the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism a total of $300,000 to provide training and support for the community and ethnic press in New York City.

The $150,000 grant announced today will help the CUNY J-School lay the groundwork for establishing a New York Community and Ethnic Media Center. An earlier $150,000 award was earmarked for teaching digital media skills to ethnic and community journalists so they can expand their online news offerings.

“Helping community and ethnic media maintain their journalistic and economic vitality is of critical importance to New York, and we are thrilled that the Ford Foundation’s generosity will enable us to contribute to that goal,” said Professor Sarah Bartlett, director of the J-School’s Urban Reporting Program, who is overseeing both projects on behalf of CUNY.

The project leader for both grants is Garry Pierre-Pierre, an experienced executive from New York City’s publishing community with strong connections to the vast array of ethnic media organizations. Pierre-Pierre is editor and publisher of The Haitian Times, an English-language weekly serving New York’s 500,000-strong Haitian community, as well as readers in Haiti. He shared a Pulitzer Prize as a New York Times staff writer for coverage of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.