INDUSTRY PROMOTES DISASTER RELIEF EFFORT Foundations, publishers and readers raise $42.8 million in just three weeks

NewsInc, Oct 8, 2001

Newspapers, their parent companies and related foundations have contributed, raised or pledged tens of millions of dollars to aid victims of the bombings of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the crash of a hijacked plane in Pennsylvania.

As of late September, the figure is believed to be well in excess of $50 million, with actual tabulated contributions and pledges from the newspaper industry, readers and foundations standing at $42,870,000.

Contributions from readers are coming in so fast that some newspapers cannot keep up with them, and are enlisting everyone from reporters and editors to advertising sales reps to help open envelopes and tabulate the money.

The contributions and pledges range from $1 -- and even pennies -- to $5 million. No one can remember such an outpouring of support following a tragedy. And it has come at a time when many papers -- and people -- find themselves in serious financial straits.

Almost every possible fund-raising method has been used, from asking schoolchildren to contribute pennies to help buy new fire trucks for New York City, to the sale of extras and special editions with the proceeds going to help victims and their families.

The funds being raised and contributed by newspapers, their companies and executives, and the related foundations are going to such established organizations as the American Red Cross and the United Way, as well as to groups set up specifically to help the families of firefighters, police and others lost in the bombings and plane crash.

But a cautionary note has been sounded by some journalists like Tim McGuire, editor of the Star Tribune in Minneapolis and president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

McGuire is concerned that in their fund-raising efforts, papers may be getting too close to the Red Cross, United Way or other charitable groups, and may be unable or unwilling to cover these organizations properly, particularly if questions arise as to the use of the money collected -- as they did in the early 1990s with the United Way.

When asked whether newspaper-led drives like those now going on could discourage press examination of the groups, McGuire says: "I don't think it helps. We don't want to be looked upon as being too involved." The Star Tribune has not had a fund-raising drive of its own, but has published extensive lists of groups accepting donations. Nor has The McClatchy Co. of Sacramento, which owns the Star Tribune, mounted a fund-raising campaign.

Ron Martin, editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, takes a different view, one which is shared by many other journalists.

"No," he says, "I don't think it compromises us. We're all human and want to help. This is a time of patriotism. People want to help, and I sometimes think we get too far away from the people. Down the road we still can -- and will -- examine things and see how the money has been used."

The Atlanta paper is owned by Cox Enterprises, which has contributed $5 million to relief efforts. The Journal-Constitution supported an event in Atlanta's Olympic Park with a goal of $1 million in contributions to help the victims and families of the bombings.

New York-area papers, understandably, were among the first to set up fund-raising efforts. The New York Times Co. activated its Neediest Cases Fund, which ordinarily raises money at the Christmas season and the following two or three months.

It called its emergency effort the 9/11 Neediest Fund and decided to seek donations through Oct. 11. As of late September, the Times Co. had raised $17.2 million in contributions and pledges. The money will go to the seven New York social service agencies that distribute funds raised in the annual effort. They range from the Catholic Charities organization to Jewish and Protestant philanthropies. In addition, three foundations representing the uniformed services and other emergency services will receive funds. The campaign is managed by the New York Times Co. Foundation, which covers all administrative costs.

LONG TRADITION OF GIVING

"The New York Times has a long tradition of helping those in need," Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman and publisher of the Times, notes. "Exactly 90 years ago, my great-grandfather, Adolph Ochs, created the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. ... In this, one of New York's greatest hours of need, it is fitting that the Times and New Yorkers join hands once again to ease the suffering. ..."

The New York Daily News activated its Charities Fund and has been raising money to help the widows and children of firefighters and police killed in the bombings and their aftermath, as well as for similar New York Port Authority and World Trade Center survivors' funds.

By late September, says Marie De Paris, the paper's senior vice president for strategic marketing, the total raised amounted to "$2.3 million and counting."

"We have been getting $300,000 to $500,000 a day and are hard put to open the envelopes and count the money," she added. "The contributions range from $1, to one for $100,000 from a single individual."