May 27, 2006

$52 Million Pickup

Wow. Just wow.

An assembly of news organizations banded together yesterday to give $52 million to the Newseum, the museum dedicated to the news business. Charles L. Overby, chairman and CEO of the Freedom Forum and the Newseum, said the gift was one of the largest combined media gifts in history.

At a news conference in the unfinished building on Pennsylvania Avenue, the eight donors were introduced as the founding partners of the enterprise. Spaces throughout the $435 million, 250,000-square-foot museum will be named for the organizations and media families.

The New York Times and Ochs Sulzberger family, and News Corp., the empire of Rupert Murdoch, each gave $10 million. Other donors are the family of H.M. "Hank" Greenspun, late founder of the Las Vegas Sun, $7 million; NBC Universal, $5 million; Time Warner, $5 million; Hearst Corp., $5 million; ABC News/Walt Disney Co., $5 million; and the Pulliam family, descendants of Eugene C. Pulliam, whose publishing empire included the Indianapolis Star and Arizona Republic, $5 million.

I never got to visit the first Newseum when it was open, though I got a tour of it after it closed - but before it was dismantled - thanks to Mr. Overby, who I'm pleased to say happens to be my father-in-law. The new $435 million Newseum promises to be spectacular.

The Newseum gift will go toward a $100 million capital campaign, said Overby, and the remainder of the $435 million will come from the Freedom Forum foundation. The forum, founded in 1991 by Gannett chief Allen Neuharth, operated the first Newseum in Rosslyn. That closed in 2002 in preparation for the new facility. It had about 2.25 million visitors in five years.

The new seven-level building, to open in fall 2007, will have three times as much exhibition space. The Pennsylvania Avenue side is basically glass, a metaphor for the belief that the press is a "window on the world." A byproduct promises to be postcard-perfect views of the Capitol.

A huge 74-foot-high tablet, made from 50 tons of Tennessee marble, will be carved with the 45 words of the First Amendment.

"Someone suggested that members of Congress will have to see it whether they want to or not," said Newseum President Peter Prichard.