The Wall Street Journal has announced plans for an annual lecture and fellowship program to honor the contributions and memory of former Editorial Page Editor, Robert L. Bartley. Mr. Bartley, whose career at the Journal spanned nearly 40 years-including fully three decades as editorial page editor and editor-died in December 2003.

Starting in 2006, the Journal will inaugurate the Robert L. Bartley Lecture, to be delivered annually by someone whose work and ideas comport with Mr. Bartley's philosophy of "free people, free markets."

"Throughout his 30 years as the Journal's editorial page editor and editor, Bob Bartley inspired principled and original thinking that changed and shaped the society in which we all live," Wall Street Journal Publisher Karen Elliott House said.

Also beginning in 2006, the Journal will inaugurate the Robert L. Bartley Fellowship Program under the stewardship of The Wall Street Journal editorial page. The fellowships, consisting of paid internships of up to six months, will be provided to young thinkers and writers whose views are broadly consistent with Mr. Bartley's philosophy and who aspire to careers in journalism. As many as four such fellows will be selected each year through an application process that will be judged by senior members of the Journal's editorial board. Fellows will work as writers and editors on the editorial page in the U.S., Europe or Asia, as well as at the Far Eastern Economic Review. The fellowships will help to perpetuate not only Mr. Bartley's memory, but also the principles and priorities to which he devoted his distinguished career.

"Bob devoted attention to teaching and motivating talented young people, many of whom have gone on to careers in journalism at the Journal and elsewhere. The Bartley Fellowships are consistent with that legacy," Ms. House said.

"The best way to honor Bob Bartley's legacy is to continue to promote the principles he believed in and the journalism he practiced," said Paul A. Gigot, editorial page editor, The Wall Street Journal. "We think that fellowships for aspiring journalists and an annual Bartley Lecture will help to carry Bob's belief in 'free people, free markets' to future generations."

Mr. Bartley achieved several honors during his long tenure at the Journal, including a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1980 and, shortly before his death, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In awarding that medal, President Bush cited Mr. Bartley as "one of the most influential journalists in American history."