The Santa Fe Reporter's local newsroom is about to get even stronger.
The capital city alt-weekly is one of seven media outlets in the mountain West to earn full-time placement of a staff writer through Report for America and the Solutions Journalism Network beginning in June.
The program, modeled somewhat after the Peace Corps and Teach for America, provides grant funding to partner news organizations to help close coverage gaps in the community. In 2019, it includes 60 reporters across the nation. The sponsoring organizations cover about half the salary, and it's up to local fundraising efforts for the rest.
SFR's proposal sought to bring on the additional reporter "to amplify the voices of Santa Fe's Southside—its immigrant and Indigenous community, service industry workers, entrepreneurs and families—through stories that impact their lives."
The reporter will also cover business and culture outside of the city's contemporary downtown core, especially taking into account women, people of color, historical context, access to health care and education.
Launched in 2017 and donor-financed, Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit media organization that provides training and supports teams of emerging journalists around the world. Funding comes from the Google News Lab, the Knight Foundation, the Lenfest Institute for Journalism, the Galloway Family Foundation and the Select Equity Fund.
Solutions Journalism Network, whose mission is to encourage "rigorous reporting on responses to social problems," also gets support from Knight, along with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Ford Foundation, Democracy Fund and others. More support comes from LOR Foundation, the Kendeda Fund in Montana, and other region-based funders.
The program placed reporters in 60 newsrooms earlier this year, including renewed placements at Dallas Morning News and Chicago Sun-Times, sending reporters to cover public health, hurricane and fire recovery, women, Native communities, criminal justice and other topics. The newer round of placements focuses on Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Wyoming.
SFR was selected after a competitive application process. The Albuquerque Journal is the only other in news placement in New Mexico; its reporter will cover water. Other placements include Boise Public Radio, Yellowstone Public Radio, and the Wyoming Casper-Tribune. The organization provides a pool of applicants of nearly 1,000 journalists who wanted to be a part of the program. Local editors help choose the individual and supervise them like any member of the existing staff.
SFR will depend on community fundraising to provide matching funds for the yearlong reporter's wages and benefits. Stay tuned for future opportunities to get involved, or give today.
Prefer to mail a check? The GroundTruth Project (for Report for America), 10 Guest Street, Boston, MA 02135
Got questions or story ideas for the new reporter? Call SFR editor and publisher Julie Ann Grimm at 505-988-7530 or drop a line to editor@sfreporter.com.
