The Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship is a competitive program that provides a yearlong experience to early-career journalists to give them the coaching, network and skills they’ll use for a long and lasting career in journalism.
Read this FAQ to learn more, then apply here.
What is the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship?
Through mentoring and coaching, this yearlong fellowship gives early-career journalists the skills, knowledge and confidence they need for a long career in the industry. Our fellows work either in their current newsroom (with the support of that organization and the program) or in a full-time position with one of our partner newsrooms, where they may stay on after the program ends.
How does it work? What happens if I’m accepted?
If you’re already in a newsroom that supports you joining the fellowship, you’ll start attending our weekly classes and in-person events when the next cohort begins in August. If you aren’t already in a newsroom or you’re looking to change jobs, your application places you in the program’s jobs portal, where you can apply for jobs in partner newsrooms if you’re accepted. The partner organizations do the interviewing and hiring.
How does my newsroom get involved, or how do I make my newsroom a partner organization so I can apply? (Also, what if you deny my newsroom’s partnership application — can I still apply?)
While we don’t have a formal application for newsrooms, please feel free to contact Benét J. Wilson, the program’s director, at bwilson@standtogether.org. You can also set up a meeting with her at calendly.com/benetw.
Who are partner newsrooms?
We’re adding new ones all the time, but at the bottom of this page you can see past newsrooms we’ve worked with, and in this story you can see the newsrooms we’re working with in our current class.
How long has this fellowship been around?
Poynter and Stand Together Fellowships have worked together since 2019.
Why does Poynter work with Stand Together Fellowships?
Here’s an open letter about the partnership from 2019, which includes this:
“The Poynter-Koch Media & Journalism Fellowship is the first step of a collaboration intended to create a sustained impact by equipping future leaders in media to pursue a meaningful career. The curriculum is designed to address not only the hard skills of reporting and storytelling techniques but also the pillars of First Amendment law, foundations of a free press and the core values that underpin public service journalism — so fellows can find principled success in this dynamic field.”
How many fellows will be accepted?
Up to 60.
Who creates the programming?
The program directors, Poynter’s Kristen Hare and Stand Together’s Benét J. Wilson, work together to craft the monthly themes, weekly sessions and three annual in-person events.
How does a journalist apply?
The application is completed on Stand Together’s portal. Head over here.
Does this pay my salary?
The fellowship program provides a stipend to the fellow’s employer of 60% of their salary, to a maximum award of $50,000 per fellow. You will negotiate your own salary, which is generally commensurate with experience.
Is this just for print reporters?
Absolutely not. We’ve had audience engagement journalists, photographers, broadcasters, audio producers and editors in this program. In fact, we design the programming to be medium-agnostic as much as possible.
How do you train people with such different skills?
We believe that the issues facing early-career journalists are the same – lack of time, training and attention. This fellowship works to weave together hard and soft skills through the fellowship year to help fix that. Monthly themes include “Foundations of Powerful Storytelling,” “Journalism and Trauma,” “Media Law and Policy” and “Building Audience-Centered Journalism.” We also work to bring together fellows with similar skills in our advisory groups, which meet twice a month.
Beyond skills, the program digs into principles that are important to any journalist’s reporting like openness, dignity, and community.
What does the schedule look like?
We start in August with an in-person event right before the Online News Association’s annual conference, which is in Philadelphia this year. We’ll have our midyear retreat at Poynter in St. Petersburg, Florida, in February 2024. And we close our time together in Washington, D.C., in May 2024. Additionally, we meet every Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Eastern on Zoom. Every other week, we meet with small advisory groups for the last 30 minutes.
What makes this program different from other fellowships I’m considering?
While we love that this fellowship helps put journalists in local newsrooms, we think of ourselves as being journalist-first. That means every aspect of our fellowship is designed to build the skills, knowledge and confidence of journalists to prepare them for a long career in the industry. Throughout the year, we weave together hard journalism skills with the principles behind why they matter. You’ll learn both how to make better connections with the community you cover and why it’s important that you do. Those skills include understanding the business of journalism, critical life skills including negotiating, managing up and financial planning, and core journalism skills including fact-checking, and investigative and narrative storytelling. We also ask our fellows to take on a project while they’re with us, and we give them time to build something that they can be proud of.
Wait, there’s a project, too?
Yep. We spend time at our opening summit figuring out where there are opportunities to go beyond the day-to-day and build, create or template something that benefits your community, your newsroom or our industry. In our last fellowship, one fellow created a better workflow to track tips, and another created a process to follow up on the anniversaries of major stories. That helps the newsroom. One fellow created language for postcards, the site and her business cards that explain what it means to work with a journalist. That helps the community. And one fellow built a style guide to help journalists cover homelessness. That helps our industry.
If I don’t get accepted, should I apply again next year?
Absolutely. This is a competitive program. Each year’s cohort is built while minding diversity across different types of journalism, regions of the country, sizes of newsrooms, and the applicants themselves. Next year’s application pool may be completely different and you’ll have another year of experience and work you’ve done to bring to the table.
What else should I know?
The application deadline is March 10. Also, we’re really smitten with this year’s class. If you want to know more, you should reach out to them and get their insights. And check out these stories from past fellows.
