The Land accepted into Report for America’s journalism support program

The Land is excited to participate in Report for America’s innovative journalism support program in 2022, through which we will hire a new reporter. 

“Being accepted into Report for America is an exciting opportunity that will help The Land better serve up our unique brand of community-driven, independent, in-depth local journalism,” said Lee Chilcote, The Land’s editor and founder.  

Report for America pairs journalists up with local newsrooms and helps pay for part of their salaries, enabling newsrooms without big budgets to fairly compensate quality reporters. The Land’s participation in the program means that we’ll be able to hire a new reporter in 2022. 

“Yes, local news is in crisis—but this batch of newsrooms also fills us with tremendous hope,” said Steven Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America. “Newsrooms across the country are pushing to cover essential local beats like schools and rural areas, at the same time they try to better represent all of the people in their communities.”  

Report for America currently partners with nearly 270 newsrooms across the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In 2022, that number will increase to 325. 

According to a press release, newsrooms were selected based on the following priorities Report for America has identified based on feedback from the field. 

• Report for America is expanding into more rural communities, with more than 40 new positions available, to reach areas hardest-hit by newsroom closures

• 40 of the total beats are focused on education, with 18 in the new group

• The program looks to fill two dozen Spanish-speaking positions, helping newsrooms reach the growing Latino population in their communities

• There’s increased demand for coverage of the environment, with 31 new beats open

• Many of the beats—nearly 40%— will cover communities of color, meeting a continued demand from newsrooms to provide more equitable coverage

“The Land’s focus will be on jobs and economic development and how they impact social equity,” said Chilcote. “Cleveland is the poorest big city in the U.S. and many economic development organizations work to create jobs and foster economic equity, yet there is very little in-depth economic development reporting that really examines these efforts.”

“Through The Land’s focus on accountability, solutions journalism and equitable community engagement, we’ll dig into the numbers, ask the hard questions, and identify and examine solutions,” he added.
The position at The Land will begin in June. Those interested can create an account and fill out the application on Report for America’s website. For more info about Report for America, check out their about page.