Local Investigations Fellowship for Journalists in United States

This program is a one-year investigative reporting fellowship to develop the next generation of great reporters to do this essential type of accountability journalism at the local level. They are looking for fellows who have a few years of professional experience covering a local beat and who are ready to tackle an ambitious investigative project but lack the time, resources and guidance to produce it.

These fellows will receive the rare opportunity to learn the judgment, skills and techniques needed to excel at investigative journalism from the best in the business. The fellows will spend a year, paid by The Times, to produce signature investigative work focused on their state or region that will be published by The Times. The hope is that the fellows will do the best work of their careers in this program, and, after the fellowship, apply what they learned to create even more ambitious work in their local communities and newsrooms.

Benefit

• For local news outlets, this fellowship is a prestigious development opportunity for promising, early-career journalists to spend a year learning from veteran investigative editors, and then return to your newsroom with a new set of skills that will benefit your report. The New York Times will employ the fellows for the year. Your newsroom will have the option to co-publish the work at no cost.

Eligibility Criteria 

• The ideal candidate for this fellowship:
  • Is either an independent journalist or a journalist employed at a newsroom willing to provide a yearlong sabbatical.
  • Has a minimum of three years of professional experience as a reporter covering a beat for a local newspaper or local digital news outlet.
  • Has an ambitious local investigative story idea that needs time and resources to execute.
  • Is a journalist who believes they would bring new perspectives to investigative journalism.

For more information, visit The New York Times Company.