Funder of CJR’s “The Audit” resigns from board, withdraws support

Herb Winokur, a businessman who funded the business journalism blog “The Audit” on the Columbia Journalism Review‘s website, has withdrawn his financial support and resigned from the publication’s board, reports Joe Pompeo of Capital New York.

Pompeo writes, “Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, which publishes the magazine, confirmed Winokur’s exit, but declined to comment on the reasons for it. Winokur, who is one of the principals in Capricorn Holdings, an investment firm, did not respond to a request for comment.

“‘We have hundreds of donors, and anybody who comes in and provides support for a project is almost certain not to be involved in it forever,’ said Lemann, noting Winokur was one of about a dozen donors that bankroll The Audit’s full-time editorial staff of two. ‘That’s just the way philanthropy is. I hope one day he’ll return.’

“Winokur’s involvement in The Audit, which debuted in 2006 and gained steam the following year when Wall Street Journal veteran Dean Starkman was hired as its editor, has raised eyebrows in the past. Here was a watchdog blog about the business press whose benefactor was, indeed, a high-profile finance figure who’d once been intensely scrutinized by the business press.”

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