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Centers
Photo by Julius Motal
The Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York boasts three grant-funded centers that serve as hubs for education, research, training, events, and professional support for working journalists.
The Tow-Knight Center for Journalism Futures was launched in Fall 2010 to help create a sustainable future for high quality, high impact journalism. In 2025, the center expanded its emphasis to focus on artificial intelligence and its impact on news, audiences and journalism — and on how the industry needs to meet the moment.
The Center for Community Media plays a key information and networking role, ensuring that community news outlets from across the country have access to the same research, tools, funding, and training as mainstream news outlets.
Started in January 2014, the McGraw Center for Business Journalism aims to enhance the quality and depth of business and economic news coverage.
Through research, convenings, and the development of educational resources, the Journalism Protection Initiative seeks to ensure that journalists can operate safely and freely and that the information they produce reaches the communities they serve.
Tow-Knight Center for Journalism Futures
Relaunched in 2025, the Tow-Knight Center for Journalism Futures explores how generative AI is transforming journalism — not just how news is created, but how audiences find, interact with, and use information.
The Tow-Knight Center is a catalyst for reimagining journalism in an AI-transformed information landscape. Its work centers on meeting the AI moment: understanding how journalists and news consumers can navigate an AI-intermediated information landscape to preserve journalism’s democratic mission. Its work goes beyond theorizing to building prototypes, conducting research, and working with newsrooms to navigate this transformation. Follow its Substack for updates on AI and journalism research, experimental tools, and insights on the future of news.
The Center was established with generous support from The Tow Foundation and the Knight Foundation.
Center for Community Media
The mission of CCM is to serve news organizations that provide essential local coverage for populations whose voices and issues are underrepresented in mainstream media. The Center serves as a hub of information, resources, and training aimed at increasing the sustainability of this news media sector.
McGraw Center for Business Journalism
Financed by a $3 million grant from the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation, the McGraw Center was created to support veteran business journalists and train young reporters entering the field.
The Center commissions in-depth stories on serious economic and business topics through the McGraw Fellowships, which provide experienced reporters with $5,000 a month for up to three months. We publish their stories in partnership with established media outlets, as e-books, or through the J-School’s book imprint CUNY Journalism Press. The stories also run on the McGraw Center web site.
The Center also funds scholarships for Newmark J-School students who concentrate in business reporting and holds an annual conference for business reporters and editors.
Journalism Protection Initiative
Founded in February 2023 in response to rising threats to journalists and journalism in the United State and around the world, the Journalism Protection Initiative conducts research, hosts converning, and supports education related to press freedom, media safety, and the public interest. At the Newmark Journalism School, the JPI seeks to ensure that graduates have the skills, resources, and knowledge to effectively practice their profession in an adversarial environment.