Non-profit Report for America Seeks to Expand Local Newsroom Coverage
posted on 7.22.2019The non-profit group Report for America has developed a program to augment local news coverage by making the financial burden to add staff a little easier.
It isn’t a solution for every newsroom, but it could provide a way for some Texas newsrooms to fill a much-needed gap in coverage.
The group is funded by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism, Annenberg Foundation, Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation and a host of other organizations interested in strengthening communities through local journalism.
Report for America recruits talented, service-oriented journalists who want to serve under-covered areas.
In 2019, Report for America placed 61 journalists in 50 U.S. newsrooms, only a handful of which were in Texas: Texas News Hub / KERA-FM Dallas-Ft. Worth, the Dallas Morning News and the Victoria Advocate.
Mallory Falk, a two-time Edward R. Murrow Regional Award-winning radio journalist whose stories have aired on All Things Considered, Here & Now, and the Texas Standard, augments KERA’s coverage with stories primarily on border and immigration issues.
Report for America is now accepting applications for news organizations to host a corps member starting in June, 2020.
If a station’s newsroom is selected, Report for America pays about half of an entry-level salary. The rest is split between the news organization and local donors (individual donor, university, family trust or foundation). The reporter becomes an employee of the newsroom, serving for one to two years.
Any type of news organization can apply and application consists of answering a few key questions such as:
- What are the coverage gaps in your community?
- What specific beat(s) would you create for RFA corps members to fill that gap?
- Can you deliver your (and your community’s) share of the reporter’s salary?
Learn more about the program and the application process here
Questions? Contact TAB's Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.
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