The print version of the St. Louis Journalism Review, a publication that critiques metropolitan news media and events in the area, may stop receiving funding from Webster University, which has subsidized and published it for the last 10 years.

Founded in 1970, the St. Louis Journalism Review (SJR) is the last metropolitan critique of news media in the country.

Webster owns the publication, but SJR has its own corporation and board of directors.

Ed Bishop, editor and general manager of SJR and a professor at Webster University, acknowledged the possibility that the print version of SJR will go out of business when it ceases to receive funding from Webster. He said that Webster’s administration has given him hints that it will stop funding the print version.

“They have asked me to do a business plan that will end publication, and they have also told me not to hire a graduate assistant,” said Bishop. “I could not continue to do [the print version of SJR] without the help of a graduate assistant. I hate the idea that we’ll drop the print version.”

Charles Klotzer, the founder of SJR, has very different opinions when it comes to the survival of SJR’s print version.

Where Bishop sees an uncertain future, Klotzer sees little uncertainty.

“Ed is a close friend of mine and he is wrong,” said Klotzer. “[The print version of SJR] will not go out of business. There is a lot of misinterpretation out there.”

Webster University has been looking to cut back on its spending, and because SJR is an independent publication, its financial necessity to the university has been questioned.

Klotzer hopes that Webster can continue to subsidize the publication, but no final decision has been made.

“Should Webster not continue [to fund SJR], it will have to be by other sources,” said Klotzer. “I can assure you, either under Webster’s home or not, it will continue elsewhere.”

He says that SJR has a lot of support, from the chagrin of the faculty to the dismay of the students concerning Webster’s decision to possibly stop subsidizing the publication.

“The students have sent scores of letters, which have been published in Webster’s newspaper, including mine and from all over the country,” said Klotzer.

Bishop mentioned that SJR has and is continuing to find other outlets of media to enable the publication to reach a younger and larger audience that will continue even if the print version does not.

SJR’s leadership is looking to start a blog, or Web journal, in three or four months as well as a television show. SJR already has a radio show on KDHX called “Reality Now” with Bishop as the host. The show airs on Wednesdays at 7 p.m and discusses the distribution of news in today’s democratic society.

Klotzer said that he and Bishop may have differing opinions concerning the future of the print version of SJR because of differences in optimism.

“It could be that some people see the glass as half empty, some half full,” said Klotzer.

Klotzer’s optimistic attitude has kept him from experiencing what he would view as unnecessary anxiety about the publication.

“SJR will go on without Webster,” said Klotzer. “I have no doubt that it will continue.”

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