Ball Brothers Foundation Awards Second Grant to Franklin College Statehouse Bureau

Release date: December 14, 2012

The Ball Brothers Foundation awarded the Franklin College Statehouse Bureau a $15,000 grant to help the college's student journalists do more work with broadcast news outlets across Indiana.

This is the second grant the foundation has made to the bureau. In 2010, the Ball Brothers Foundation helped launch the bureau as a year-round operation with a $20,000 Ball Venture Fund Grant. That gift made it possible for Franklin College journalism students to work for news operations in every part of the state.

"We believe in supporting both education and informed, responsible citizenship. The Ball Brothers Foundation's support of the Franklin College Statehouse Bureau allows us to honor both of those core values at the same time," said Jud Fisher, Ball Brothers Foundation president.

Franklin College President Jay Moseley said that the Ball Brothers Foundation's support has transformed the lives of students.

"Franklin College is extremely appreciative of the support from the Ball Brothers Foundation," Moseley said. "The Statehouse Bureau continues to experience enormous success and has been a valuable source of experiential learning for our journalism students. This grant will allow them to expand their skills and capabilities as journalists."

The Franklin College Statehouse Bureau, located in the Emmis Communications building on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis, began in 2006 as a month-long intensive political reporting class for six of the college's journalism students, reaching a readership of roughly 75,000 people during one month each year. It has grown into a major year-round enterprise, now led by managing editor Lesley Stedman Weidenbener. It now involves as many as 20 students.

The Franklin College Statehouse Bureau has entered into agreements to provide stories to The Indianapolis Star, The Louisville Courier-Journal, The Evansville Courier & Press, The Bloomington Herald-Times, The Republic and other news organizations. The combined daily print circulation for those newspapers totals nearly 500,000 readers and the readership is three or four times that large.

The Statehouse Bureau has also launched www.TheStatehouseFile.com, a subscription website that provides individuals with Indiana public policy and political news.

John Krull, Franklin College Pulliam School of Journalism Director, serves as executive editor of TheStatehouseFile.com.

"The Ball Brothers Foundation helped us launch the Statehouse Bureau and The StatehouseFile.com," Krull said. "Our friends there have been essential partners and allies every step of the way. We could not have done it without them and we cannot thank them enough."

For more information, contact the Franklin College Office of Marketing and Communications at (317) 738-8185.

The Ball Brothers Foundation was founded in 1926 and is located in Muncie, Indiana. It provides grants to Hoosier nonprofit institutions and organizations. It is a privately-owned, family foundation with the motto "Building community since 1926." The Ball Brothers Foundation offers funds for start-up programs; organizations with specific projects; programs that encourage leadership, partnership, and efficiency; and more. For more information about the Ball Brothers Foundation, call (765) 741-5500.

Founded in 1834, Franklin College is a residential four-year undergraduate liberal arts institution with a scenic, wooded campus located 20 minutes south of downtown Indianapolis. The college prepares men and women for challenging careers and fulfilling lives through the liberal arts, offering its approximately 1,000 students 28 majors, 36 minors and eight pre-professional programs. In 1842, the college began admitting women, becoming the first coeducational institution in Indiana and the seventh in the nation. Franklin College maintains a voluntary association with the American Baptist Churches USA. For more information, visit www.franklincollege.edu.