The MJC Newsletter: Great work, everyone | | |
Hello, all – What a month this has been. And what incredible work you continue to do.
Steve Grove’s column about the standout journalism around the murders of Rep. Melissa and Mark Hortman is a salute to all the amazing journalists who worked through those stressful days. Those of you in the Capitol press corps, especially: We see you, and we know this hit close to home. You served us all with exceptional skill and grace. Please continue to take care of yourselves and each other.
The tough news around public media funding is hitting communities and newsrooms across the state.
And to the folks at KARE-TV: Amazing work this week, pulling off newscasts from the base of their Shoreview transmitter after a fire Tuesday forced the evacuation of the station. GM Doug Weider says they expect to be back in the building Monday morning.
Keep up the good work, everyone. Enjoy summer in Minnesota’s nonstop news cycles. Deep breaths!
Here’s what we have for you
- Events and training opportunities
- What’s new with local journalists
- Job listings
- A few interesting things to read as you enjoy summer
If your email is clipped, click the link at the bottom to read it all. And connect with us on LinkedIn!!
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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What news consumers want to know about journalists' use of AI, July 31 at noon (virtual)
Consumers told us they want to know when journalists use AI. But when it comes to a new technology like AI, journalists are wondering about how they can best bake transparency into their work. Featuring MJC director Ben Toff
NEW: Google tools training with the MJC and SPJ, Aug. 5 at 6 pm
Join the MJC and the Minnesota SPJ for hands-on training in Google tools for reporting and organizing your next investigative project. It’s a free, in-person workshop in Minneapolis. Space is limited, so RSVP soon if you’d like to join!
Webinar replay: How to access open records – and how to fight back when you're denied
In May, our friends at Minnesotans for Open Government – Brandon Stahl, MaryJo Webster and Don Gemberling – joined us for a virtual session on public records in Minnesota.
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Physical safety trainer Jeff Belzil taught at an MJC session in June. Photo: Pooja Singh
Next steps for journalist safety training: In June, the MJC partnered with the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation to offer in-person digital and physical safety training to journalists from around the state. We’re grateful to everyone who attended – and to the editors and newsroom leaders who championed this session.
We are working with CPJ and IWMF to develop more programming around safety, security and mental health, tailored to your needs. If you have suggestions or want to get involved in this training, please let us know. Email Meg at martinme@umn.edu.
If you attended the June training, and haven’t had a chance to offer your feedback yet, there’s still time! We’d love to hear from you as we develop our next steps.
| | Interesting events elsewhere | | |
Summer is a quiet time in the training world, with several major journalism conferences taking up most of the training space. Here are a few highlights:
Mind Opener: The Future of Small, Local, and Cultural Media, July 30 at noon (virtual)
Join the Citizen’s League for a conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing small, local and cultural media outlets; how news and media outlets are trying to evolve and adjust; and what can be done to preserve local media outlets as critical community resources.
From fear to care: Navigating mental health amid ICE raids, July 30 at 8 p.m. (virtual)
Moderated by Boyle Heights Beat editor Jessica Perez, the panel will feature trauma-informed therapists and cultural healers to unpack the toll of the raids on families, frontline responders and the community as a whole.
Overview: Understanding the "Big Beautiful Bill", Aug. 6 at noon (virtual)
Experts from the Bipartisan Policy Center will guide journalists through the nuts and bolts of the law and the congressional procedures that were key to its passage, with a focus on what is helpful to know for ongoing coverage of the law and its impacts.
KFAI garage sale community celebration, Aug. 10 from 4-7 p.m. in Minneapolis
KFAI community radio in Minneapolis is planning a fundraising garage sale event for Sept. 6. On Aug. 10, the community kicks off its garage sale season with a picnic celebration at Wabun Picnic Area near Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis.
– Meg
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Resources for folks experiencing job uncertainty
The news out of public media hit hard last week — with Congress clawing back $1.1 billion it had already appropriated to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — and the ripple effects are already beginning to take shape here in Minnesota.
Some stations have already had to make tough decisions about cutting staff or making programming changes.
Here’s a roundup of the Minnesota stations that received CPB funding last year, and how they’re responding — plus, ways to support our public media colleagues by donating to their station, following their work or wearing their merch.
If you’re navigating the uncertainty of this moment, you are not alone — and there are lots of resources available to help find some steadiness in what can be a destabilizing time:
The National Press Club Journalism Institute is offering career support office hours over the next two months. The organization’s executive director says the sessions will offer community, connection — and practical tips and tools for journalists looking for work. Sign up here.
If you’d like to volunteer to review resumes of displaced Voice of America journalists, you can sign up to help with PEN America’s journalist support program.
The Institute for Independent Journalists has researched the impacts of layoffs on individual journalists, so we can better prepare ourselves in the future. The IIJ’s leader, Katherine Reynolds Lewis, laid out a to-do list for journalists facing layoffs in Nieman Reports earlier this year.
The News Revenue Hub has put together a fantastic toolkit for journalists called “Laid Off to Launch” — a valuable bookmark in a volatile industry. And the Association for Health Care Journalists offers some tips for those accidental freelancers among us. Mandy Hofmockel’s excellent Journalism Jobs and a Photo of My Dog newsletter shared tips a few years ago for how to share the news on social media – and the Freelancers Union has a great guide to getting started on your own, in Freelancing 101.
Minnesota’s Department of Employment and Economic Development has resources for workers who are navigating or anticipating a layoff — and Springboard for the Arts has developed a deep bank of resources and tools for creative workers in all phases of their careers.
And whether you’re navigating uncertainty or just pondering your next move, Bridget Thoreson’s ever-insightful Explore Your Career River newsletter is a must-read. Bridget talks about how she’s rejected the idea of the career ladder and embraced the idea of the career river, with ebbs and flows and seasonality. You can get started by mapping your own career river.
– Meg
Jobs!
If you’ve got openings, let us know and we will happily spread the word.
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Eden Prairie Local News is hiring their first first full-time, paid chief executive officer and publisher.
Access Press has an opening for an executive director.
The Star Tribune is hiring an outdoors editor, a women’s sports reporter, a college sports reporter, a restaurant critic/reporter, a college and women’s sports team leader, a high school sports reporter, head of audience strategy and chief product and technology officer.
KSTP-TV in the Twin Cities is looking for a content desk editor and a meteorologist.
Hubbard Radio in Brainerd has an opening for part-time on-air talent and full-time on-air talent.
KARE 11 in Golden Valley is looking for a morning executive producer, a news anchor and a part-time photojournalist.
WCCO-TV in Minneapolis is hiring a reporter/multimedia journalist.
WDIO-TV in Duluth is hiring an evening news anchor, a sports director/anchor and a multimedia journalist.
ESPN Radio is looking for a board operator in the Twin Cities.
Forum News Service is looking for its next editor.
WDAY in Fargo is hiring a sports director.
Adams MultiMedia is looking for a managing editor for their nine southern Minnesota papers, an editor and an assistant editor in Coon Rapids and an editor in Caledonia.
The Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication is hiring an assistant director of career and employer engagement.
The Marketplace radio show, produced by St. Paul’s American Public Media, is looking for a temporary editor in a remote role.
Minnesota Public Radio is looking for a vice president of friends and membership.
As we mentioned last month, CityCast is launching in the Twin Cities, and they’re hiring for several positions: Creative producer, podcast and social host, audience development manager and senior account executive.
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Scholarships, fellowships and awards
PMJA opened station applications for Opening Doors internship initiative. The program aims to "diversify public media journalism while strengthening science, technology, and economics reporting nationwide. This member-exclusive opportunity allows your station to host a talented BIPOC journalism student for a subsidized 16-week internship during the 2025/2026 academic year."
RJI is hosting a community journalism symposium for a cohort of 30 journalists in November.
Interested in becoming a Report for America host newsroom? There are two more online Q&A sessions with RFA’s recruitment team for interested newsrooms on Aug. 21 and Aug. 28.
A monster list of 2025 grants is here.
– Meg and Regina
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We lost more great journalists this month.
Nancy Cassutt Ison of Marketplace, MPR News, Internet Broadcasting and WCCO-TV, of glioblastoma at age 64. She was a newsroom leader at MPR News and instrumental in launching Sahan Journal. And she had a great laugh! She will be missed. Our condolences to her family, including her husband (and our former Hubbard School colleague) Chris Ison.
Mike Kaszuba, an incredible public records reporter who retired from the Star Tribune, passed away this month. More here: With Mike Kaszuba's passing, Minnesota has lost a stalwart of public interest journalism. And see Rochelle Olson’s note on Kaszuba at end of this post: Just cheers — no jeers — as a painful week in Minnesota comes to a close
Former Pioneer Press Twins writer Scott Miller, 62, died this summer. From the Detroit News: Baseball writer Scott Miller, whose love of Tigers led to career choice, dies at 62.
Retired UMN professor (in both journalism and rural sociology) Phillip Tichenor has also died. He was known internationally as part of the team that developed the “knowledge gap” thesis. Professor emerita Kathleen Hansen remembers his personal impact.
Lots of news
We’ve already told you about the latest developments in Minnesota’s public media landscape since Congress canceled federal funding for CPB. Here are a few more updates:
The Fulda Free Press and Murray County News, the Nobles County Review and the Murray County ADdvantage closed in mid-July. Read more: Three local newspapers, citing higher printing costs and other issues, close in southwest Minnesota (Star Tribune)
Project Optimist announced this month that they’re furloughing staff, and making other changes prompted by a funding gap. Director Nora Hertel talks about the latest here on Instagram.
Anna Weggel (formerly of APMG) is City Cast Twin Cities’ inaugural executive producer.
The new Immigrant News Coalition, which includes Sahan Journal, Documented, El Tímpano and Listening Post Collective, received a $1.5 million PressForward grant.
Tom Scheck of MPR heads to the Star Tribune to be their investigative editor.
Word from the Star Tribune Newspaper Guild is that 24 Guild members in the newsroom took the company up on its buyout offer, along with two Guild members outside the newsroom. “They represent an extraordinary 751 years of combined service to the Star Tribune. It's the most buyouts the Star Tribune has had in at least 15 years. The last voluntary buyouts were offered in 2015 to seven Guild members,” the local Guild representatives reported to the union. Among those confirmed taking the buyout is Jenni Pinkley, director of audio and video initiatives.
Other Strib staffers who have posted publicly about leaving — though they haven’t directly tied their departures to the company’s offer — include Katy Read, business; Ron Haggstrom, sports; Kent Youngblood, sports; and James Lileks, features. And Nation/World editor Paul Klauda announced his retirement.
KARE-TV news director Stacey Nogy will leave the station in September. She’s been news director since 2021, but worked there for many years. Here’s what she wrote in the announcement of her departure: “Truly, I want to do some different things in my life and find my next calling. I’ve been a journalist since high school. My first exposé was getting kicked out of class so I could uncover what ‘in-school detention’ was like. LOL. Now, thousands of stories later, and after the privilege of leading this newsroom, I want to explore other possibilities.”
MPR News deputy managing editor Nancy Lebens is retiring. Her last day will be Oct. 3, after 33 years in journalism. She arrived at MPR News in October 2002 as a part-time associate producer for what was then the station’s flagship Midmorning program. Two years later, she was named producer of the show, then promoted to evening editor where she ran things for many years until becoming DME.
Holly Marie Moore is heading from the Mankato Free Press to be MinnPost’s first engagement coordinator.
Iron Range Today gets 501(c)3 status and is now Minnesota’s newest nonprofit news organization.
MPR newscaster Perry Finelli retired this spring. (We missed this in last month’s newsletter, but didn’t want it to go unmentioned!) MPR’s Perry Finelli Signs Off After 50-Year Broadcasting Career (insideradio.com)
Congratulations to Press Forward Minnesota, which celebrated its first year with an event at McKnight. We love their work in building up local news!
Mukhtar Ibrahim, founder of Sahan Journal, launches new Muslim Brief newsletter.
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Lots of award winners!
So much great work was highlighted at the Minnesota SPJ Awards. Winners of the inaugural A-Mark award for investigative journalism are A.J. Lagoe, Steve Eckert, Gary Knox and Kelly Dietz of KARE-TV for their “Recovery Inc.” series. Second place went to Nathan O’Neal, Casey Hooker and Joe Augustine of KMSP-TV and third place was given to Deena Winter and Patrick Coolican of the Minnesota Reformer.
You can take a look at all the MNSPJ Page One awards, but we’ll highlight a few more big ones: Congrats to Patrick Coolican of the Minnesota Reformer for winning Journalist of the Year, and Mara Klecker of the Star Tribune for being named Young Journalist of the Year. The staff of the Minnesota Reformer was awarded the Peter S. Popovich award for “a person or organization that exemplifies the fight to uphold First Amendment rights.”
Folks at MPR News and APM Reports made a good showing in the 2025 Indigenous Media Awards winners, with awards to Allison Herrera, Anika Besst, Claire Keenan-Kurgan, Kate Martin, Melissa Olson and Mathew Holding Eagle III. Leah Lemm, Lindsey Seavert and Ben Garvin won for their documentary Finding Manoomin: A Search for the Spirit of Wild Rice. And it was fun to see former KARE-TV reporter David Cournoyer win, as well.
Two APM podcasts made TIME’s 100 Best Podcasts of All Time, “In the Dark” (now via the New Yorker) and “Sold a Story,” as did “Wiser Than Me” from local production company Lemonada.
Star Tribune columnist Laura Yuen was recognized for excellence in column writing by the Association of LGBTQ Journalists for her column, “He donated his sperm to friends. Now he wants to be dad to the 5-year-old.”
And the Society of Professional Journalists’ national Sigma Delta Chi awards recognized the KARE-TV team of Boyd Huppert, Chad Nelson, Devin Krinke and Jacob Charbonneau for their Land of 10,000 Stories reporting.
Send us your local industry news and updates — and jobs! — to share with everyone.
– Regina and Meg
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Nextdoor is emphasizing local news in its big redesign, Nieman Journalism Lab
I blew up on TikTok with journalism — here's how you can, too, IJNet
The Side by Side podcast from UMN Extension hosts conversations with people around the state about the relationship between urban and rural spaces, including Project Optimist’s Nora Hertel, The Daily Yonder’s Tim Marema and others.
Americans still have faith in local news — but few are willing to pay for it, Nieman Journalism Lab. Related: You’re more likely to pay for news if you’re rich, old, and/or white, Nieman Journalism Lab
Why, and how, journalists must cover racism, The Emancipator
Small-Town Newspapers Are Dying Because No One Wants to Run Them, Columbia Journalism Review
Disaster 101: Your guide to extreme weather preparation, relief, and recovery, Grist
Is remote work harming the audio industry? Eric Nuzum, Audio Insurgent
Research: Are journalists projecting their own opinions onto the public? RQ1
The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work, 404 Media
Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, Pew Research
Minnesota Supreme Court Rejects Attempt to Compel Disclosure of Reporter Communications, American Civil Liberties Union
I missed this after the Preakness last month, but it’s a lovely, short read from the New York Times so I thought I’d go ahead and finish with it today: Forget Speed. Finish Strong. “In an era wound tight with urgency, Journalism, who moves with patience and lets the chaos pass, is the horse we didn’t know we needed.”
– Regina
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G.G. and Regina, along with colleagues Scott Libin, Sara Quinn and Matt Cikovic, are prepping for the Hubbard Reporting Experience, a 10-day program in August that gives the Hubbard School’s younger students a chance to experience working in a daily news environment. This year, guest editor Chris Worthington will also work with students on story development and editing. Participants on the digital and newscasts team find, pitch and report stories on deadline. It’s a great confidence-builder and gives students clips to apply for internships.
Our four Report for Minnesota students are now well into their 10-week internships at their respective posts: Jasmine Shackleford at the Brainerd Dispatch; Evan Pederson at the West Central Tribune; Owen McDonnell at the Mankato Free Press and Dani Fraher at KAXE in Grand Rapids. Editors report the students are doing well.
And finally, this fall we are relaunching Hubbard’s micro-internship program to give our newest students a chance to earn their “first clip” from a professional outlet. Four organizations — the Park Bugle, the Roseville Reporter, TMC Publications and Minnesota Trails Magazine — will offer assignments to students in six rotating three-week terms throughout the year. This initiative is part of Report for Minnesota’s pipeline approach to developing student connections with professional newsrooms throughout their educational programs. Thanks to all participants.
– G.G.
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