For much of the decade to 2009, coverage of local news declined as newspapers—typically the lifeblood of local coverage—folded or contracted in the throes of an historic industry realignment. As media attention to legislatures and statehouses across the country waned, experts worried in particular about the watchdog function of journalism. Who would hold politicians to account? How would citizens monitor their lawmakers? One proposed solution: let university journalism programs take up the slack and assign students to cover local events, including politics. The idea had been tested at a few top-ranked journalism schools, which touted the joint educational and civic benefits. But no one knew whether a standard journalism school—with fewer financial and institutional resources—was capable of establishing a political news service.

Beth Barnes, director of the School of Journalism and Telecommunications at the University of Kentucky (UK), had long harbored hopes of doing just that. But she had been stymied. While Kentucky had suffered an alarming decline in the number of journalists assigned to cover the state capital, Frankfort , early efforts to assign students to substantive stories had proven overly ambitious. The learning curve for students was simply too steep, UK lay geographically too far from Frankfort , and the investment of faculty time to bring student work up to publication quality was staggering.

But in early 2009, Barnes thought she might have hit on a winning solution. A small, historically black school in Frankfort , Kentucky State University (KSU), wanted to create an accredited journalism program. KSU Provost James Chapman had approached Barnes to advise on this effort, and the consultant Chapman hired to design the program was enthusiastic about making a student-run news bureau a centerpiece of the new department. The consultant hoped UK might work with KSU to make such a project a reality. KSU had space for a bureau, some impressive reporting equipment, and a desire to make its mark on the journalism landscape; UK had the journalistic expertise and respect of the media community to make it work.

Barnes was thrilled, and for much of 2009 she watched hopefully as KSU came to terms with the realities of creating a journalism school. In the summer, Chapman asked her to head a steering committee to advise KSU on its proposed program—and on the hypothetical news bureau. The committee’s first meeting was scheduled for November 17, 2009.

But as the meeting approached, Barnes was beset by doubts about the proposed partnership. First, KSU was many months, likely years, from having an accredited journalism school. How could it head, or even partner in, a credible news bureau? How would it be financed? Who would direct it? When students went home for the summer, who would maintain the service? Would Kentucky newspapers even consider running copy from a student organization?

Then, on the morning of the committee meeting, the Associated Press (AP) announced that it had cut its Frankfort bureau from two reporters to one. The AP provided the bulk of political coverage to dozens of small, rural publications across Kentucky . The cutback reminded Barnes how urgent it was for someone to fill the reporting gap. If university journalism programs didn’t step forward, who would? But at the same time, were universities capable of serving as primary providers of statewide political news coverage?