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Indian Country Today to Relocate to ASU Cronkite School

AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File

Indian Country Today, an online publication billed as the largest news site covering tribes and indigenous people across North America, announced Wednesday it is relocating its operation to Arizona State University.

The outlet, which started out as a weekly newspaper in 1981, said in a news release it will move this summer from Washington, D.C., to the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix. A digital team, however, will remain in Washington.

The change in setting also will allow the site to create a national TV news program specifically for Native Americans using Native American talent.

Cronkite Dean Christopher Callahan praised the move. Callahan said the school wants to bolster coverage of Native communities as well as the number of Native journalism students. Stories about tribal issues sometimes are ignored or reported without proper understanding, he said.

"We are delighted that Indian Country Today, the iconic and influential news site, will be coming to Cronkite," he said in a statement.

In addition, Cronkite also is searching for someone to serve a first-ever professorship on Native Americans and the news media.

Indian Country Today was on the brink of shutting down before the National Congress of American Indians took it over in February 2018. The news site was relaunched under the leadership of Mark Trahant, who called the partnership with Cronkite "game-changing."

The partnership is the latest of several initiatives at Cronkite. The school also is expanding coverage of the U.S.-Mexico border. Last month, "PBS NewsHour" announced plans for a western news bureau inside the journalism school.

The nightly news broadcast will tape a program to cater to West Coast audiences. The show will have a six-person team, including a correspondent serving as an anchor.

 

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