Applications are now open for The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism, a new program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism to support in-depth, ambitious coverage of critical issues related to the U.S. economy and business.

In an age when many news organizations no longer have resources to tackle complex, time-consuming stories, the McGraw Fellowships will enable accomplished journalists to do the deep reporting needed to produce a distinguished investigative, analytic or narrative business story. Each McGraw Fellow will receive a stipend of $5,000 a month for up to three months.

The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Center for Business Journalism, which opened in January at the CUNY J-School, will award the Fellowships. The McGraw Center is dedicated to enhancing the depth and quality of business news coverage through training, scholarships and support for veteran journalists. In addition to financial backing, the McGraw Center will provide Fellows with editorial guidance and assistance in placing their stories with established print, radio or digital outlets.

The McGraw Fellowships are open to journalists with at least five years professional experience. Freelance journalists, as well as reporters and editors currently working at a news organization, may apply. Applicants must submit a well-developed story idea, three professional work samples, and two letters of reference.

Applications will be accepted periodically through 2014. The upcoming deadline for proposals is May 15, 2014. Further information is available at www.mcgrawcenter.org .

Funded by the family of the late Harold W. McGraw, Jr., the former chairman and CEO of McGraw-Hill and long-time publisher of BusinessWeek, the Center is led by Jane Sasseen, a financial journalist with 30 years experience covering global business and economics for BusinessWeek and Yahoo News; her work has also appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek and the Christian Science Monitor.  She is a recipient of the Gerald Loeb Award, the top prize for financial journalism in America.  Steve Shepard, editor of BusinessWeek for 20 years and the founding dean of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, is faculty advisor to the Center.

The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in midtown Manhattan is the only publicly supported graduate journalism school in the Northeast.  Led by Dean Sarah Bartlett, the School offers a 16-month Master of Arts in Journalism program that includes a required paid professional summer internship.  It was first in the nation to offer an M.A. in Entrepreneurial Journalism.