With science journalism in retreat, universities try new strategy for informing the public

Concerned that journalism's economic problems are reducing Americans' understanding of science, medicine and other research, 35 of the nation's top universities on Tuesday announced they will feed their own accounts of their discoveries directly to top news sites on the Internet. Under the plan, the universities have formed what is essentially their own nonprofit wire service, called Futurity, to provide articles to popular Web sites such as Yahoo News and Google News, along with MySpace and Twitter. Participating universities include Princeton, Yale, Duke, the University of Chicago and UC-Irvine. Every week, each sends several news releases and articles written by university staff members to an editor at the University of Rochester. The editor then highlights stories to showcase the research.