Medill School of Journalism

The Medill School of Journalism traces its origins to a Chicago Tribune reporter, Eddie Dougherty, who in 1920 proposed that Northwestern University initiate a training program for reporters. After discussions involving Northwestern president Walter Dill Scott and Tribune co-owners and co-editors Joseph Medill Patterson and Robert “Colonel” McCormick, the University began offering journalism courses in 1921 with financial support from the Tribune. At the time only 28 colleges or universities in the nation had professional journalism classes, and most reporters learned their trade exclusively on the job.

Initially a department in what was then the School of Commerce, Northwestern’s journalism program became a separate school in 1931. It was named in honor of Patterson’s and McCormick’s grandfather, pioneering journalist and Chicago Tribune founder Joseph Medill. Degree offerings soon included both bachelor’s and master’s programs.

While many colleges suffered declining enrollments in the economically depressed 1930s, Medill attracted more and more students. From its beginnings the school emphasized learning through practical experience, along with the benefits of a liberal arts education. Medill graduates quickly began to achieve positions of influence and prominence in journalism and advertising and to garner prestigious awards, with an ever-lengthening list of Pulitzer Prizes.

Over the decades Medill has instituted numerous new programs and curricular innovations to keep up with changing media and technologies. Adding to newspaper, magazine, and advertising courses, the school introduced its first radio classes in the 1930s and two decades later began offering courses in television; recent years have brought studies in new media. The Medill News Service was founded in 1966 to give journalism graduate students the opportunity to cover Washington for media outlets lacking the resources to hire their own Capitol Hill reporters. The Media Management Center, established in 1989, has won renown for its groundbreaking research on media usage. Pioneering the field of integrated marketing communications, Medill launched the country’s first IMC master’s degree program in 1989 and added an undergraduate certificate program in 2008.

Headquartered since 1954 in Fisk Hall, in 2002 the school opened the McCormick Tribune Center, a state-of-the-art facility housing Medill’s broadcast and new media offerings as well as the IMC program. In 2008 the school expanded internationally with the opening of a journalism program at Northwestern’s new branch campus in Qatar.