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With the shutdown of the local newspaper on the west side of Buffalo, Annemarie Franczyk saw a void she could fill. Through her Online Newsroom course, the Buffalo State University professor decided to create a web publication called the as a resource in the emerging local news desert.

Students in the course have their work published to the site. They receive credit while getting professional journalism experience by reporting on the local community.

“It's a value-add,” Franczyk said. “They're reporting real stories for a real neighborhood.”

The news outlet has operated since 2010. Sources for stories have begun to recognize the name of publication and commended students for their professionalism, which is gratifying to Franczyk, she said.

“I've gotten letters from people that the students have interviewed, and they complimented them on their preparation and their questions and their willingness to hear what the sources were saying,” she said.

Franczyk’s course has won awards for service learning. And as another indication of success, local media outlets occasionally have followed up on Buffalo Review West stories for their own audiences, Franczyk said.

Buffalo Review West operates only during the school year, but Franczyk said she encourages students at the end of the semester “to develop stories that have a little bit of an evergreen nature to them, so that might have some usability into the few weeks after the course ends.”

At Buffalo State, which is part of the State University of New York system, the communication department is at the cusp of redesigning the journalism program. Franczyk said she hopes to develop more reporting opportunities for students. Currently in the idea stages, she would like to foster collaboration between her class and the school’s other journalism courses that partner with the and the to create a multiplatform educational experience for journalism students in their senior year capstone.

“I would like to reinvigorate the journalism major,” Franczyk said. “I would love for that to somehow involve these three courses, dovetailing what they do together into one big program” “We'd have to do some real work to see how that could pan out,” she added. “I see this as the beginning of maybe something much greater than what it has been.”

Franczyk said she recognizes that almost every aspect of the journalism profession requires real-world experience on every media platform, and candidates who have that experience are better-equipped for jobs. That’s what she’s trying to provide for Buffalo State students.

“I think that this course is really paving the way for them to get into the industry,” Franczyk said. “So I'm really pleased with the course. I'm pleased that it may become something more than what it is right now.”