The Richard C. Longworth Media Fellowships

The Longworth Media Fellowships are made possible by a grant from The Clinton Family Fund to honor Richard C. Longworth, a former Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent and now Distinguished Fellow at the Chicago Council. Stipends of up to $20,000 are awarded each year to journalists focusing on global issues that affect Midwestern readers and viewers. There is no deadline and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

"Financial pressures have hit Chicago and Midwestern media, especially newspapers, hard," Longworth said. "One result has been the virtual abandonment of foreign reporting, at a time when foreign events—in China, Latin America, the Middle East, Russia—have an increasing impact on our lives."

"Once, correspondents told local readers and viewers what the news from abroad meant to them," he said. "Now, not one newspaper or other outlet in our region has even one foreign correspondent on its staff, and so this local tie is lost. Our democracy depends on an informed electorate, which fails when nobody is doing the informing."

Eligibility

The Longworth Fellowships are open to print, broadcast, and online journalists based in the Midwest. Staff journalists, as well as freelancers, are eligible to apply. Field reporting should be from international locations and topics must be timely and of clear interest and importance to Midwestern audiences.

Distribution

Proposed projects must include a credible plan for broad dissemination of the resulting work in Midwestern news media (print, online, and/or broadcast). Both staffers and freelancers should be able to demonstrate committed interest from editors and/or producers. For freelancers, the credibility of a distribution plan is generally most evident in an applicant's track record working with the listed outlets. Please do not have editors send letters simply stating they would consider the work. Letters from editors and/or producers who have worked with you in the past, and are interested in working with you again, are encouraged.

Applications must include the following:

• A description of the proposed project and timeline in no more than 250 words.
• A preliminary budget estimate, including a basic breakdown of costs for travel, ground transportation, lodging, meals, visas, and local reporting partner/translator fees.
• Distribution plan.
• Three samples of published work, either print or broadcast.
• Three professional references. These can be either contact information, or letters of recommendation. The latter is encouraged when letters from interested producers or editors are available.
• A copy of your curriculum vitae.
• Applications may also include a more detailed description of the project, but this will be considered as an optional supplement only. The most important part of the submission is the 250-word summary.