Increasing news coverage of important issues and building a diverse talent pipeline of future journalists.
Challenge
A few years ago, California news outlets offered very little coverage of postsecondary topics—the economic return on investment of a degree, student struggles with mental health and high cost of living, institutional performance, and policies that impacted aspiring graduates and their families. What little appearedwasoften reductive, with huge gaps in coverage of the collegesserving the lowest-income students.
Solution
I developed a multi-stage, multi-yearfunding strategy, quicklyresulting in a 500% increase in higher education reporting in the state.Within a few years, coverage of California institutions serving low-income and first-generation students grewby 1,000%. In stage two, I helpedlaunch and growmultiple fellowship programs to provide training,professional opportunities, and support to cohorts of diverse journalism students from across the state. Fully85% of these fellows went on to be hired by news outlets such as the Washington Post, LA Times, Bloomberg, and the Wall Street Journal after completion of the fellowship program.
