Civic Catalyst Newsletter
Winter 1997

A Farewell

On January 1, 1998, Jan Schaffer was named executive director of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism. I handed over the tiller confident that the course we have charted together over the last five years is in good hands. The change in leadership at the Center will, I am sure, be seamless. As those of you who have been close to the Center know, I prefer the team style of leadership and Jan has been at my side for every decision, and through every controversy.

I leave the Pew Center after five years as executive director to begin to meet a new challenge handed me by the Pew Charitable Trusts' Rebecca Rimel. I will be testing the hypothesis that the top-down, Washington-centered, public policy news distribution system may no longer be serving the needs of the public, the news media, opinion leaders and policy makers; that much of the action in the policy sphere is now at the state, rather than the federal level.

As Washington has become mired in partisan wrangling, indeed, as big ideas have withered in the super-charged political air of the capital, some states have found their own solutions to the big questions of our time at home, rather than waiting for Washington. Welfare reform is an obvious example. But, the theory goes, what's happening in Austin may not be reported nationally or be known in Springfield or Sacramento.

If the theory is correct, and I will take the next six months to test it, I will design a research venture that will attempt to close that information gap by producing scrupulously researched, non-ideological reports on new ideas taking form in state capitals.

With Jan in charge and the commitment of the Pew Trusts to the mission of the Pew Center as firm as ever, I plan to continue to be intensely engaged in the debate over journalism values. The difference is I will be on the outside, but, you may be sure, still cheering for the same team.

--Ed Fouhy