The Pulitzer Center’s StoryReach U.S. reporting and engagement accelerator seeks newsroom partners who value collaboration and audience engagement as much as powerful enterprise reporting. This is a chance to innovate with your peers and the Center’s team on high-impact projects that combine breakthrough reporting and effective audience engagement.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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OVERVIEW

With misinformation on the rise, shifting news consumption habits, and declining civic engagement, the need for trusted, impactful reporting that connects with audiences has never been greater. That’s where the StoryReach Fellowship comes in.

This summer, we will launch a second cohort of eight to nine Fellows for StoryReach Midwest. Applications are now open for freelance and staff reporters hosted by local or regional news outlets in the following 12 states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.

The part-time, yearlong Fellowship is designed for reporters from all beats, desks, and media formats. The ideal candidate will have at least three years of experience with ambitious investigative or in-depth enterprise reporting projects. We're eager to find candidates who also have some experience with audience outreach or a partner newsroom with creative and effective ideas for engaging audiences beyond publishing. 

Through funding and resources for reporting and outreach, exclusive training and support, and monthly virtual cohort gatherings, our Fellows will gain valuable insights and practical tools to connect their reporting with their communities in innovative ways. 

Current Fellows have experimented with audience engagement such as public listening sessions, QR poster campaigns, radio amplification, and even informal gatherings like mimosa brunches. They’ve also identified trusted community messengers and tailored their outreach strategies to suit the favored platforms of different audiences and demographics, whether that’s Facebook LIVE, TikTok, or issue-oriented newsletters. 

While we welcome proposals on a broad range of local underreported issues, this year we are also placing special emphasis on a few topics:

  • Health: Reporting on scientific progress, cutting-edge research, and policies important to global health and financial support for health programs. Projects can include underreported health conditions and the effect of health policy changes and challenges in the U.S. or abroad. Proposals that include travel outside the U.S. are welcome.
  • Marine Fisheries: Any underreported topics related to the management or stewardship of marine fisheries or topics, as well as issues, related to the overall health of fisheries, supply chains, or environmental impacts affecting the Great Lakes or vital watersheds or waterways in your region.
  • Human Rights: Stories highlighting the intersections of racial justice with issues like sexual and reproductive rights, gender-based violence, migrant rights, excessive force, arbitrary detention, and hate crimes.
  • Climate and Jobs: Reports on how Midwest work sectors are affected by climate change, exploring worker and employer experiences, job risks, and community responses to rising temperatures and extreme weather events.

Applicants with ideas for reporting projects related to the above topics are strongly encouraged to apply.

The 12-month, part-time Fellowship will provide journalists with up to $30,000 to pursue their reporting project and innovative engagement activities that expand the reach and impact of their reporting. In addition, Fellows will have access to data and research support and training with a group of peers that will help strengthen their reporting projects and related engagement activities.

Successful applicants will be expected to join a mandatory, 90-minute meeting held every month and to engage with other Fellows in virtual meetings and on the community’s dedicated online platform.

We require the sharing of methodologies, engagement plans, and lessons learned so each reporting project may serve as a blueprint for other newsrooms pursuing similar projects.

TO APPLY, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING:

  • A short statement of purpose: How this particular Fellowship fits in your career path and why you are best positioned to be a StoryReach Midwest Reporting Fellow. (500 words)
  • A detailed description of the reporting project you seek to pursue during your Fellowship, including a plan for audience engagement activities. Please do not propose general themes, but a concrete project that shows pre-reporting on the subject. A compelling, well-researched project proposal with a reporting plan will help you stand out. (500 words)
  • Your plan for audience engagement should include the distribution channels for the reporting and a brief strategy for identifying and reaching key audiences (both online and offline) that need to engage with your project. Reference your pre-reporting to outline the key audiences for your project and how your publication and engagement strategies will connect reporting to those audiences. Think: Who will need this information and why? What information do the target audiences for this story need to be equipped with to engage with the issue? Where do these audiences get their information, and how might an engagement plan meet audiences where they are?  Your engagement strategies can include the production and distribution of explainer or informational materials; digital assets that are easily distributed in platforms your target audiences use; community events and exhibits in locations and/or with partners your target audiences are familiar with; collaborations with schools and universities; and more. Be bold! Also, see examples in the FAQs section. (Up to 500 words)
  • We also will ask for a budget that lays out the anticipated costs of the project. Categories may include records requests, software, data analysis, multimedia production, travel and lodging, salaries/stipends, and engagement activities. Up to a third of the $30,000 Fellowship funds may be allotted to salaries with the remainder earmarked for reporting project costs and ideas for audience engagement for the Fellowship project.
  • Three examples (links) of your best stories published in the past three years.
  • A letter of commitment or interest from a media organization(s) that would publish your story(ies). If you are a staff reporter, please get a signed letter from your editor or newsroom manager confirming you have their support in applying for the Fellowship. This letter should explicitly state that your newsroom will allocate time for you to participate in Fellowship activities and the newsroom will support publishing and an engagement campaign for the stories you produce through this Fellowship. It can also include why your manager thinks you would be suited for this Fellowship.
  • Three professional references: These can be either contact information or letters of recommendation.
  • A copy of your resume or curriculum vitae.

We encourage you to submit your application early. We will schedule interviews with finalists on a rolling basis. We encourage proposals from journalists and newsrooms that represent an array of social, racial, ethnic, and underrepresented groups, and economic backgrounds.

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ASK ME ANYTHING WEBINAR

Here are some of the things you can learn from watching this recording: 

  • Hear from Pulitzer Center editors on how the StoryReach U.S. Fellowships will differ from the other journalism fellowships and what we are looking for in our candidates.
  • Get tips on how to make your application stand out.
  • Hear examples of successful reporting and engagement projects.
  • Tips for planning your audience engagement strategy. 
  • See the Q&A with the audience.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Who is eligible to apply? 

  • Staff or freelance journalists working for local or regional outlets in the Midwest U.S. on a wide range of platforms, including digital, print, radio, video, and multimedia.
  • Team players with the experience and/or ability to work collaboratively across newsrooms.
  • Reporters with a deep interest in engaging diverse audiences with their stories, and exploring creative and audience-informed strategies to engage those audiences.
  • Reporters can be based anywhere. However, they must be partnered with a local or regional news outlet in the Midwest U.S. Fellowships are remote.
  • Reporters from any nationality are eligible to apply.

What are the benefits of becoming a StoryReach U.S. Fellow?

  • The opportunity to work on an urgent, underreported issue for a substantial period of time.
  • Access to mentors and specialized training opportunities.
  • A community of like-minded colleagues that will continue beyond your Fellowship.
  • Financial support to cover records requests, travel expenses, data analysis, and stipends.
  • The opportunity to find strong collaborators, ideas, and inspiration for your project or future projects.
  • The support to experiment with new ways to reach audiences in your region and deepen connections with the community your outlet serves.
  • The chance to further amplify your project through the Pulitzer Center’s outreach and education programs.
  • An opportunity to connect with the Pulitzer Center’s Data and Research team for advice on your reporting project.

How much financial support will Fellows receive?

Fellows are eligible to receive up to $30,000 divided into three payments. Please include a detailed budget explaining your reporting expenses and strong ideas for audience engagement for your Fellowship project.

When does the Fellowship start and how long does it last? 

The Fellowship is expected to start in early July 2025 and last through July 2026.

How detailed should my project proposal be?

Your proposal should demonstrate that you have done pre-reporting on the stories you want to pursue, including hypotheses that guide the work, data sources, and methodology. We want to see that there is an ambitious, coherent, and realistic reporting plan in place. We also are looking for thoughtful and creative ideas on how you plan to translate your stories to other formats to engage diverse audiences, from community events to artistic expressions, social media strategies, and more. If you don’t have experience with audience engagement, you may team up with someone who works on audience engagement in your partner outlet for this part of the application.

We are looking for reporters with a track record of in-depth, nuanced, and impactful reporting on issues that affect the communities they cover. Experience in investigative, data, and/or explanatory reporting is valued.

Why the focus on the Midwest local news outlets?

This regional approach is driven by two key reasons. First, this region of the United States has seen the sharpest decline in newsrooms and journalists, according to Revelio Labs. Secondly, the Center has a wealth of experience supporting Midwest newsrooms, along with civic and educational organizations.

What are some examples of successful audience engagement strategies by Pulitzer Center grantees and Fellows?

  • Jasmine Aguilera, a 2024 StoryReach U.S. Fellow, and her team at El Tímpano led public outreach events and workshops in Oakland, California, to engage community members in testing their homes for lead and identify questions they could answer in a bilingual explainer resource called, “Oakland Renters at Risk of Lead Exposure Asked, “What Are Our Rights?” The team also led a public panel discussion to connect community members directly with local officials and community leaders who could respond to the questions raised in their reporting.
  • Marina Schauffler, a 2024 StoryReach U.S. Fellow, surveyed fire stations throughout Maine for her project,  A Firehose of "Forever Chemicals," with the Maine Morning Star and published her findings. She built an explainer video, landing page, and scrollytelling intro for the project after learning from her reporting that those materials would be more easily accessible and shareable by her target audiences. She connected with three other Maine news outlets, and several newsletters serving firefighters and officials focused on PFAS policy, to expand distribution of the story. She also created a one-page fact sheet to publish alongside her reporting and distributed print copies to fire stations throughout the state.
  • Alejandra Martinez and her team at  The Texas Tribunedeveloped bilingual audio and video resources to accompany the publication of their project, Neglected and Exposed, after learning through their reporting that community members in the region where they reported were often sharing and receiving information through videos/audio shared over WhatsApp and Meta. The team created and distributed flyers informing residents of what to do when they are ordered to shelter in place due to high levels of pollution and included QR codes to their reporting in the flyers. They also led several in-person outreach initiatives post-publication to expand the reach of their reporting.
  • Charleston, South Carolina-based Post and Courier distributed thousands of copies of its Pulitzer Center-backed I am Omar project, featuring a teacher lesson plan created by Pulitzer Center staff. The reprint was showcased at local events, including the Spoleto Festival USA's 2022 premiere of the acclaimed opera Omar.
  • María Inés Zamudio and Manuel Martinez, of Chicago’s WBEZ, integrated community engagement from the very start of their project on water debt during the pandemic, from community surveys to printing and mailing 18,000 bilingual postcards with a QR code so people most affected by water debt could access the stories. The reporters also organized bilingual “water bill workshops” to share practical tips with community members.
  • Mission Local's How Do We Survive? project used storytelling and graphic novel illustrations to depict the challenges faced by the primarily Latino community members in San Francisco’s Mission District during the pandemic. The bilingual project employed a Spanish-only texting service for broader access to vital news and updates, and led to reporting projects and educational workshops centering the voices of youth learning remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

What are some tips for crafting an engagement strategy for the Fellowship project?

  • Who are the key audience(s) who need to know about this reporting and where (and how) can you find them? 
  • Who are the influencers or voices that are likely to resonate most with your audiences?
  • How do the key audiences who need to know about this reporting inform themselves and their communities? What are the most effective online/offline channels at your disposal to reach the key audiences?
  • Which local or regional civic organizations or institutions are potential partners for sharing your reporting with key audiences?
  • What are some bold outside-the-box strategies for reaching key audiences before, during, and after the project is published?

Is this a full-time Fellowship?

No, this is a part-time Fellowship. We expect news outlets to treat the Fellows’ projects as one of their signature projects of the year and for Fellows to dedicate significant time to the reporting and engagement activities.

What is the Pulitzer Center's role in the editorial process?

The Pulitzer Center will coordinate and support the StoryReach accelerator, but Fellows and their outlets will have total editorial independence to do their work. Fellows may seek guidance and advice from Pulitzer Center editors as needed.

Can I apply with my team?

Yes, small teams of journalists from newsrooms (or collaborative reporting networks) are welcome to apply, but we will still need a lead person to be the Fellow. Please explain who is on your team and what their roles are. Team members will be welcome to join training and meetings if they wish to. The amount available for a Fellow leading a team is up to $30,000 divided into three payments.

Are the community and training aspects of the Fellowship mandatory?

Yes, this is why we approach this initiative as a Fellowship. Working and learning with a diverse group of journalists from around the country can illuminate unforeseen connections among stories and strengthen everyone’s projects with new perspectives. If you are pursuing a good story but cannot commit to the requirements of a Fellowship, you can try applying for a regular reporting grant.

Is editorial independence guaranteed?

Totally. Without any restrictions.

When is the deadline to apply for the StoryReach U.S. reporting and engagement lab?

All applications to the StoryReach Midwest Fellowship are due by 11:59pm ET on Monday, May 1, 2025. 

Additional questions?

If you have questions, please contact Steve Sapienza, senior editor for U.S. News Partnerships at [email protected].

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