Pulitzer Center at NLGJA 2024: Support, Safety, and Insights

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“I want to give you one piece of advice: Just apply,” Pulitzer Center grantee, author, medical doctor, and professor Seema Yasmin told an audience at the National Convention of the Association of LGBTQ+ Journalists (NLGJA) in Los Angeles. 

There, the Pulitzer Center hosted a panel called “So You Have a Story Idea: How To Fund Your Reporting.” Nearly 60 student, mid-career, and veteran journalists were in attendance.

Yasmin joined Tara Pixley, assistant professor of journalism at Temple University and 2022 Pulitzer Center and Diversify Photo Eyewitness Photojournalism grantee, and Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, a staff writer at PolitiFact and a 2021 Pulitzer Center Post-Grad Reporting Fellow from Columbia University. The trio discussed the life cycle of working on a story with funders like the Pulitzer Center, beginning with brainstorming and pitching.

“Do not be so precious about your ideas and projects,” said Pixley. “Don’t tell yourself no. Let other people reject you. [...] Don’t count out different organizations or smaller places and really look for folks who are going to work with you and be excited.”

Partner with “organizations that are going to consider the impact and try to extend the impact and also care about engaging with the communities,” she said. “I care more about getting this information out into the world and for communities to have this knowledge and feel seen through this work.”

When looking for places to apply, Pixley suggested ​​“reverse engineer[ing] the success of people you respect.”

Yasmin said she pitches when she has an “idea of who my sources are. I’ve done some interviews with them already and then I will do so much research and set up a Google alert for key terms in the project. I kind of have my finger on the pulse.”

“If you're used to freelancing anyway,” she said, “doing your pre-reporting, finding your sources, then you’ve already done the work.”

When one negotiates the terms of a grant or fellowship, consider that “money is not emotional,” said Yasmin. “It’s logistics. It’s about making sure you have what you need to do the job.”

“Study negotiation, read a book on negotiation. Please, as a journalist, because actually all of us depend on the rest of us doing that [and fair terms and compensation],” said Yasmin.

“Always ask for a kill fee [a payment made to a freelancer or journalist when an assigned project is canceled] when an outlet agrees to place your story. Get it into your contracts,” added Pixely.

The Pulitzer Center offers two kinds of support: grants and fellowships. Grants are one-time, financial commitments for direct reporting costs. Fellowships include training, mentorship, conferences, and outreach activities designed to extend and deepen engagement with supported reporting.

The Pulitzer Center and organizations like it maintain strong networks of publications, journalists, and partner organizations. Pulitzer Center Fellows can tap into these connections and resources while they work with the Center. When he started his fellowship, Asiedu said, he was “connected to a mentor who then connected [him] to an editor [at The New York Times].”

Build “solidarity communities so you can share resources,” said Pixley.

Asiedu, Pixley, and Yasmin all encountered safety concerns while reporting stories supported by the Pulitzer Center.

“I encourage you to use the term ‘duty of care.’ Ask your organization: ‘What is the duty of care for your organization with me as I work on this story if you agree to this?' Work on your safety at all times and sit with your story and think about any potential risk of doxxing during or after,” said Pixley.

“You don’t have to be afraid, right? You shouldn’t have to be afraid,” said Pixley. “If you use the right approach, I think you can mitigate that sort of fear and just make it really clear that, you know, you’re going into this situation. You’ve assessed this, right?”

Yasmin said she received threats after the publication of her children’s book, The ABCs of Queer History, and the young adult novel, Unbecoming. Large retailers have refused to sell them, coinciding with conservative backlash.

Protecting one’s sources is also of chief importance. “You have to earn trust,” said Asiedu. “if you have promised [anonymity or pseudonymity] to a source ... then you cannot go back and change it.”

Panelists urged the audience to consider the life of one’s story after reporting it when pitching to an organization like the Pulitzer Center. Each panelist has worked with Pulitzer Center Engagement teams like the Campus Consortium Network, K-12 Education, and Outreach.

Pixley challenged the audience: “Talk about communities. What do people want to know? How do you want to engage? What can I do to extend the impact?”

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Additional Resources:

• ACOS Alliance
• Aegis Safety Alliance
• Dart Center Style Guide for Trauma-Informed Journalism
• Economic Hardship Reporting Project
• Editor Safety Hub
• Institute for Nonprofit News
• International Women’s Media Foundation
• Student Press Law Center
• Type Investigations
• PEN America Online Harassment Field Manual 
• Transgender Law Center Journalist Resources