Our Programs

  • The New Journalist Training Program: Providing skills training and mentoring to bloggers and online journalists, state by state, this program aims to create a robust corps of individuals who can systematically report on issues critical to their communities, while adhering to the highest standards of professional journalism.
  • The New Journalist Editorial Program: Designed to pick up where the training program leaves off, the New Journalist editorial program provides talented online journalists with direct support to conduct original reporting. The majority are graduates of the training program.

The New Journalist Training Program

IMG_4445.JPGThe New Journalist Training Program recruits and enrolls talented diverse individuals into a series of journalism and blogging classes, designed to provide people with the skills to conduct serious investigative reporting that adheres to the highest standards of professional journalism while utilizing the new opportunities for journalism that the Internet provides.Typically, comma six to 10 individuals participate in the in New Journalist Training Program as a “cohort.” The program begins with an intensive all-day journalism training session, with a focus on computer-assisted reporting. Trainees are then mentored over six months by a journalism mentor and an editorial mentor. Trainees are expected to produce original reporting throughout the week to meet program requirements.

Through a transparent, competitive selection process, the Center selects promising individual bloggers as trainees and connects them with seasoned mentors. In addition to receiving coursework, trainees receive stipends to participate in the program. This serves to ameliorate the relentless financial pressure on bloggers, who otherwise could not afford to take any time away from blogging to engage in training. Details on how to apply to our New Journalist Training Program can be found here.

Three individuals oversee the New Journalist Training Program:

  • State Coordinator: The state coordinator manages the program’s logistics, ensuring that items produced by the New Journalist trainees appear on the program’s blog; the coordinator manages the program blog, and acts as a liaison between national staff and program participants.
  • Editorial Mentor: A seasoned journalist with 15-plus years of newspaper experience in the state, the mentor provides hands-on mentoring(or coaching) to program participants, helping them identify newsworthy stories.
  • Journalism Mentor: A seasoned journalism instructor, preferably employed at a local journalism school, this mentor provides training related to writing skills, typically intensive one-on-one “writing clinics” with trainees.

The New Journalist Editorial Program

IMG_4432_1.jpgThe New Journalist Editorial Program is designed to advance serious original reporting using the infrastructure of blogs. The Center owns and operates a network of “portal blogs” designed to feature work from the New Journalist program. These blogs serve as publishing homes for participants in the program, who in turn produce original reported material on these blogs. Participants are divided into “beats” corresponding to issues of importance in statewide debate. They are expected to produce original material on a regular basis. Typically, Fellows in the New Journalist Editorial Program are selected from participants in the New Journalist Training Program.

Each state operates within a “life cycle” beginning with the New Journalist Training Program. Phase one is the training program (six months). Phase two is the editorial program, which commences after the training program and lasts indefinitely?.

Two individuals oversee the New Journalist Editorial Program:

  • Editorial Director (in state): The director functions as an editor-in-chief and is responsible for selecting participating online journalists, story assignment and placement, and management of the statewide blog featuring these original reports.
  • State Coordinator: The coordinator functions as a managing editor responsible for all logistics related to story assignments, publication, and tracking of traffic and audience.