Former BusinessWeek editor talks about new grad school

Steve Shepard, the former editor of BusinessWeek, has been busy developing a graduate school of journalism at the City University of New York. It’s expected that business journalism education will play a big part in the school.

Shepard talked to the New York Sun about his plans.

He said, “I felt that it simply wasn’t right that there was no publicly supported journalism school in New York,” Mr. Shepard said. “Columbia and New York Universities are very good private schools, but priced out of the affordability range of most New Yorkers. I felt that a publicly funded school of journalism needed to be there. So from the very beginning, I had a sense of mission.”

He also added: “I have no trouble being collegial.” His collegiality is likely to be tested as he creates chairs and professorships at the school. The first class will begin in September, and it will have 50 students, who will attend classes on two floors, encompassing 40,000 square feet of space, of the Herald-Tribune building.