The MJC Newsletter: CORRECTION for the February Chill Edition | |
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CORRECTION: We incorrectly stated that Forum Communications had layoffs this month. They have not, and we apologize for the error.
Hello, journalists and journalism supporters. Hunker down in your fleece and catch up on the latest. We’ve got so much to talk about, and as hard as we work to keep this short enough so our email software doesn’t clip it, we don’t always succeed, so if you can’t spot what you’re looking for, click the link at the bottom of the email to read the entire newsletter.
Highlights this month include:
- Some great upcoming events, including our public and nonprofit network launch
- Links to things that help you, day to day
- News about Minnesota journalism colleagues
- Jobs!
- Our new statewide legislative reporting project
- Ongoing research on the business needs of local newspapers
The MJC is: Ben Toff, director and lead researcher, Gayle (G.G.) Golden, associate director of student educational initiatives, Regina McCombs, associate director of outreach and training and Meg Martin, associate director of pretty much everything.
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Events and Training Opportunities | |
Calling all journalists who work in nonprofit news: Join us as we build a community of nonprofit and public news organizations across the state. We're hosting monthly gatherings, virtually and in person; connecting with each other in a dedicated Slack channel; and developing programming and training generated from the community. Interested in joining us, or following along as we grow? Sign up here. Our first meetup will be on the evening of Feb. 26 on the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. If you’d like to join, please RSVP. And if you can’t make it in person – no problem! Our March meetup will be a virtual one. | |
More AI + journalism ethics training
For those who missed our Hackathon and related events, you’re in luck! Lynn Walsh from Trusting News, Alex Mahadevan from The Poynter Institute and MJC director Benjamin Toff will be together again virtually for a session on the ethical use of AI for the Institute for Independent Journalists’ conference on February 27-28. Register for the full conference here. (It’s just $59 and fully online.)
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Covering health and health policy in local communities: Journalists play an important role in connecting people to the information they need to make informed decisions about their own health and public health policy (even as science and medicine are more politicized and access to reliable health data is increasingly challenging).
On March 5, we’re hosting a conversation with four health journalists – Dené K. Dryden, the Rochester Post Bulletin; Sheila Mulrooney Eldred, independent health journalist and health equity reporter for Sahan Journal; Marissa Evans, independent journalist and former Star Tribune reporter; and Joanne Kenen, independent journalist and Politico contributing editor – at The Market at Malcolm Yards in Minneapolis. The event is free, and includes a reception with the panelists. Please RSVP if you’re planning to join.
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Visual journalists, unite: Northern Exposure is back on campus April 4-5. It’s a conference designed to build photojournalism skills and community, open to all photographers and photo students, with an additional track this year for public and nonprofit media editors and leadership to build visual literacy in their newsrooms. | |
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Other journalism events on the calendar
As always, you can find these events (and many more!) on the Minnesota Journalism Center’s training calendar and newsroom events calendar.
And if there are events on your radar – or events that you’re hosting – we want to help you get the word out! Email martinme@umn.edu and we’ll add them to the calendar or feature them in this newsletter. (Or both!)
– Meg
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There have been recent layoffs in the state, Eater Twin Cities No Longer Has a Dedicated Editor – and they weren’t the only ones cutting staff, industry-wide. If you’ve lost your job, or know someone who has, here are some steps to get back on the market, from the News Revenue Hub: "Laid Off to Launch: A Toolkit for Journalists.”
And if you’re looking, there are some great job listings out there this month:
And here are a few lesser-known places to watch: The Journalism Jobs and a Photo of My Dog newsletter, the Photography/Multimedia Internships and Jobs Group on Facebook and NPR reporter Adrian Ma’s Mostly Audio Jobs Google doc. Remember: UMN alumni can access Handshake, and employers can list jobs there, as well.
Scholarships, fellowships and awards for journalists
The Data-Driven Reporting Project’s spring cohort application is here. The program is designed for small to midsize newsrooms to support investigations focused on specific geographic areas and/or underrepresented communities. Deadline is March 31.
The New York Times is searching for its next Reporter Fellow for Local Investigations. It’s a one-year virtual fellowship that provides time and editing support to work on a local story that you pitch.
For leaders of nonprofits, or organizations that aspire to be, the Newmark j-school is offering full scholarships to cover the $20k tuition for their business certificate for nonprofit news organizations.
The Ochberg Fellowship at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma is a seminar program for senior and mid-career journalists who want to deepen their knowledge of emotional trauma and psychological injury and improve reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy. Deadline is March 3.
Local connections
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The Rochester Post Bulletin team accepts the Vance Trophy at the MNA convention. Photo: Joe Ahlquist, Rochester Post Bulletin.
At the MNA Awards, the Vance and Mills trophies, honoring the best multi-day and weekly news organizations in Minnesota, went to the Rochester Post Bulletin and Steele County Times. MNA also recognized seven news leaders including the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder’s Tracey Williams-Dillard for marking 50 years of service to the news industry. Here is the complete list of the MNA’s Better Newspaper Contest winners.
Randy Furst, a Star Tribune reporter for more than half a century, calls it a career. Dogged reporter – and dogged Newspaper Guild shop steward! Thanks, Randy, for the work you did in making Strib staff lives better.
Kirk Varner announced his retirement as KSTP-TV news director, and Michael Garber was named as his successor. Congrats, Kirk!
The University of St. Thomas’ ThreeSixty Journalism announced its youth leadership board. And mark your calendar for ThreeSixty’s annual Homecoming fundraiser in April!
Bemidji Pioneer editor Annalise Braught is featured in Voyage Minnesota magazine.
Twelve Minnesota news organizations received $40k Press Forward grants. See the full list in the news release.
Bob Franklin, longtime Star Tribune journalist – and journalism instructor at the University of St. Thomas – has died at 87.
Interesting Reading
Fifteen excellent journalism and media newsletters for being in the know. Because who doesn’t want more email?
If you’re a solo journalist or run a small newsletter, Beehiiv is the latest platform to try to lure independent journalists with perks.
For fun: We Want to See Your Reporter’s Notebook. Nieman Reports is asking for stories and images about your favorite reporter’s notebook and the moment it captured. Nieman also has an interesting article about a network of AI-generated newsletters targeting “small town America.” Let us know if you’re seeing this in your area.
Local news trends that the Knight Foundation is following in 2025 to help make local news more sustainable: “The rise in philanthropic giving, the emergence of public policy at the state and local level, support for underserved communities, improved infrastructure and the promise of AI add up to a better environment for local news publishers.”
Journalism Tips and Guides
The American Press Institute offers tips for fighting news fatigue by focusing on your local strengths: Local media can leverage local identity and history to stand apart from the crowd — and create new value
As you prepare to cover potential ICE raids in your area, the Guidelines for Reporting on Immigration Raids from the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and a tipsheet based on NPR’s latest guidelines can help.
If you’re trying to get your boss or a commissioning editor to let you do a passion project, Nieman has this: How to lobby for time and space to tell a story.
Newsrooms that participated in Election + Influencer Learning Cohort supported by the American Press Institute and the Knight Election Hub talk about it in “Influencer collaborations: Lessons from four months of local news experiments.”
Send us your local industry news and updates -- and jobs! -- to share with everyone.
– Regina
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Our Hubbard students have gone to the Minnesota State Capitol this month for two new internship programs to expand the Report for Minnesota program.
Two students, Jack O’Connor and Emma Ritter, are working alongside Forum capitol correspondent Mary Murphy to cover Minnesota legislation and state news. Thank you to Forum Communications for the welcoming and supportive start to this internship!
The Report for Minnesota Legislative Project began in early February as an independent Capitol reporting operation for greater Minnesota news outlets organized by the MJC and the Hubbard School. Three student legislative interns, Elias Thomas, Samantha Siedow and Yvette Higgins, began working on Feb. 3 under the editorial direction of Mike Mulcahy, former political editor of MPR News from the shared Pioneer Press Capitol office space (Thank you, Pioneer Press!). News organizations served include the Albert Lea Tribune and Austin Daily Herald, the Swift County Monitor-News/Stevens County Times/Grant County Herald, APG of East Central Minnesota (with 11 papers), Henning Publications (owners of the Citizen's Advocate, New York Mills Dispatch, Frazee-Vergas Forum), the Mankato Free Press, KAXE community radio for Northern Minnesota, Mesabi Tribune (APG-ECM), ABC Newspapers (Anoka Co. Union-Herald, Blaine/Spring Lake Park Life), APG-South - Owatonna People's Press, Faribault Daily News, Northfield News, Lonsdale Area News Review, Caledonia Argus) and the Kerkhoven Banner.
The MJC is refreshing its micro internship program and will begin outreach to news organizations that might be interested in working with students on short-term freelancing opportunities. It’s a chance to cultivate the next generation of talent and build content in the process. More soon.
– G.G.
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The research team has been hunkering down, analyzing data from several of the projects we initiated in the fall and taking steps on new ones. Thanks to MinnPost for mentioning some of the preliminary findings from one of these projects in their story about MPR News’ short form video initiative to reach younger audiences. Stay tuned for more on those results soon!
Our latest work has included analyzing transcripts from focus groups we convened with young adults in Texas and Minnesota, parsing through data from an experiment we conducted with the Texas Tribune around texting with news skeptics during the election, and planning several new initiatives with the Chicago Sun-Times and other news organizations we hope to get off this ground this spring. We also fielded a new experiment around AI disclosure this month, testing different kinds of language news organizations might use when labeling content they’ve created with the help of artificial intelligence, part of a larger project in partnership with our collaborators, the journalism support organization Trusting News.
Data collection is also ongoing for the Minnesota Newspaper Business Research Study, a project led by Hubbard School Director Elisia Cohen in collaboration with the Minnesota Newspaper Association. If you are an MNA member and you haven’t yet heard from us with a unique URL to complete your survey, please get in touch with Dr. Cohen or the MJC research team (mnjrnctr@umn.edu). We are aiming to survey all MNA members to better understand the business needs of our state’s local newspapers. And for broadcasters and other outlets, you’ll be hearing from us soon with your own survey as well!
– Ben
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