USAToday.com Sends Reporter to Cover Kosovo Crisis

Posted on April 19, 1999

USAToday.com has taken a bold approach to covering the crisis in Kosovo. Joining the ranks of print and broadcast journalists, USAToday.com has sent a news reporter into the battlefields to provide live updates on the war.

Kirk Spitzer, an assistant news editor for USAToday.com, was dispatched to Yugoslavia and is believed to be one of the only dedicated Internet reporters on the scene. Spitzer is expected to stay in the Balkans for several weeks, maintaining a daily diary and continuing war coverage exclusively for USAToday.com.

"Through our live, on-site coverage, Spitzer was able to break an exclusive story on USAToday.com regarding the 14,000 Albanians forced from Macedonia refugee camps by government officials and left to defend for themselves," said Jim Schulte, vice president and editor-in-chief of USAToday.com. "He also has been filing journal entries that appear daily on USAToday.com, commenting on the Kosovo crisis from a personal perspective."

Spitzer, age 47, joined USAToday.com in 1997 and has more than 15 years experience covering government, politics and national defense. He received a B.A. in journalism from the University of Hawaii, was a 1981 Davenport Fellow in business writing at the University of Missouri, and a 1990 Jefferson Fellow in Asian studies at the East-West Center in Honolulu.