PROGRAM UPDATE: POSTPONED
This press release is revised accordingly with MIJE statement on postponement of programs in light of coronavirus threats to public safety.

EMERYVILLE, CA — The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications announce their partnership for this year’s Maynard 200 journalism fellowship program, aligned in their mission to galvanize diversity in media and to bolster careers of more journalists of color nationwide.

Schedules and Venue: TBD – Dependent on the recommendations of healthcare professionals in light of the coronavirus threats to public safety.

The fellowship aims to train 200 journalists of color in the United States by 2023.

It supports the next generation of storytellers, managers/leaders and media entrepreneurs of diverse backgrounds by providing relevant training courses, resources and mentorship for a year by distinguished media professionals and experts in various disciplines.

A majority of the estimated 35-member 2020 fellowship class will be recruited locally, and the rest will be chosen from a national pool of applicants.

Candidates can apply for one of three tracks — Storytelling, Advanced Leadership and Media Entrepreneurship.

Link to the Maynard 200 application portal.

Fellows are required to attend both sessions and to participate in the year-long mentorship and supplementary courses.

“We couldn’t be more excited to rekindle our partnership with Northwestern, and to be able to do so in San Francisco is all the more fortuitous,” said Martin G. Reynolds, Maynard Institute co-executive director. “We are committed to helping support the next generation of journalism entrepreneurs, leaders and storytellers, and we know this great institution shares a similar goal and passion in service of its students. We look forward to collaborating with Northwestern’s faculty to infuse Maynard 200 with their wisdom and expertise.”

“For more than two decades, the Maynard Institute held its path-breaking Management Training Center at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management,” said Evelyn Hsu, the institute’s co-executive director. “We are pleased to be partners with the university again and look forward to recruiting speakers from Northwestern’s renowned faculty.”

“Medill is deeply committed to increasing diversity in all levels of media, and we’re delighted to share our faculty and space with Maynard to prepare journalists from across the country,” Medill Dean Charles Whitaker said. “These journalists will go back to their communities with an enhanced understanding of how to share rich reporting and insights with their readers, viewers and listeners.”

Maynard 200 Director Odette Alcazaren-Keeley said this year’s program cements the renewed alliance of the two institutions.

“In its third year, we see Maynard 200 as a catalyst in transforming the media landscape, especially in amplifying the voice, skills, growth and authentic power of diverse journalists,” she said. “We are once again creating a dynamic, vibrant curriculum and faculty roster to address the current needs of diverse media professionals.

“Since 2018, we have had the expertise of distinguished speakers and mentors from The Washington Post, The New York Times, Google News Lab, The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Impremedia, ProPublica, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC Marshall School of Business, NBC, CBS, Reveal and many other respected media and academic institutions. We look forward to having the knowledge and resources of Northwestern Medill’s respected faculty, as well as of its academic affiliates and network of experts.

“We’re continuing our mission to expand access to training for more journalists of color representing the general market, diverse and community media, and to spark a mini-movement of diversity in the industry, that gives real power to them.”

The Maynard 200 journalism fellowship program cohorts with some of their mentors, faculty, track executives-in-residence and MIJE executive team. Top: The 2019 class at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism in Los Angeles, CA; Bottom: The 2018 class at the Google campus in Boulder, CO

Forty-nine Maynard 200 fellows representing mainstream and diverse media organizations and entrepreneurial ventures, as well as print, broadcast, online and multimedia portals, have participated to date from across the United States. They continue to express appreciation of the program.

“There is no experience like the experience of being a Maynard 200 fellow,” says Hélène Biandudi Hofer, a 2019 participant in the media entrepreneurship track. “From the support that you receive, the resources you’re given, the mentors that are there to help lead and guide you, the trainings, the workshops, webinars . . . and especially the family unit that is created with the other Maynard fellows and the Maynard leaders, it’s unlike any experience that I’ve had as a journalist and as a media entrepreneur.

“I feel that not only has my passion for journalism been enhanced . .what this program gifted me is how it has really changed how I look at this work, and empowered me to be more of a leader in news in our country.”

Hofer is host and producer of “Need to Know” on WXXI-TV in Rochester, N.Y., a veteran team member on CBS’ “48 Hours” and founder of HBH Enterprises LLC based in New York.

The 2020 Maynard 200 program is supported by Google News Initiative and Craig Newmark Philanthropies.

MAYNARD 200 APPLICATION PORTAL

CLICK TO APPLY

UPDATE: Applications will continue to be accepted and processed. DEADLINE IS CURRENTLY LIFTED

For more information about Maynard 200:
contact director Odette Alcazaren-Keeley at okeeley@mije.org

ABOUT THE MAYNARD INSTITUTE FOR JOURNALISM EDUCATION

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is the nation’s oldest organization dedicated to helping the news media accurately portray all segments of society, particularly those often overlooked, such as communities of color. The media play a pivotal role in shaping our perceptions of each other. The distorted coverage of communities of color influences public policy and the decisions we make in our personal lives.

Maynard seeks to help news media achieve both a diverse staff and provide the public with the most accurate and nuanced coverage possible.

Maynard breaks the cycle of inaccurate depictions by using a three-pronged approach: training media managers, journalists and correspondents from communities of color; creating content to demonstrate nuanced coverage; and keeping media accountable through its Watchdog program.

ABOUT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY MEDILL SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM, MEDIA, INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications prepares the best journalism and marketing students from around the world to lead the media into the future. The school was established almost 100 years ago, and more than 17,000 Medill graduates now engage in all types of industries and are among the nation’s most successful journalists and marketers. Medill, the only journalism school at a Top 10 university, offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in journalism and a graduate degree in integrated marketing communications. Visit medill.northwestern.edu

Co-executive directors, Martin Reynolds and Evelyn Hsu

EMERYVILLE, CA — August 5, 2019 — We have some very exciting news to report. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced $1.2 million in new funding for the Maynard Institute for us to develop an in-depth transformation program for news organizations to help them establish more equitable and inclusive workplaces.

This is a huge deal.

It represents an emerging shift in the funding priorities on the part of philanthropies as they begin to further show, with their dollars, how important diversity, equity and inclusion are to the health of our democracy and to the Fourth Estate.

A portion of this grant will also go to fund Maynard’s general operations and will help us add the staffing necessary to bring this initiative to fruition. Over the years Knight has been an important partner and supported many Maynard programs. But this is the first grant it has made that will include some general support, which is needed and greatly appreciated. This also represents an important and ongoing evolution on the part of foundations, which are beginning to understand the need to support basic operations of nonprofits that do work that may never earn enough revenue to sustain them. We applaud foundation grants that award general support.

The exciting investments in local news made by Knight, Facebook and Google over the past year or so are critical as the for-profit sector, in particular, begins to migrate from an ad-based revenue model, to one that looks to subscribers as key sustainers of news gathering.

But here’s the rub.

The vast majority of American news organizations, particularly at the local level, lack the diversity necessary to reach audiences of color. You would be surprised how little data outlets have on the audiences they could have if they approached coverage and business practices using Fault Lines as a framework.

In many cases, diverse communities have turned away from their local outlets, instead looking to so-called ethnic media to see themselves accurately reflected.

And while ethnic outlets often have deep relationships and are trusted by these communities, they often lack the resources to do the kind of deep-dive journalism that is necessary to hold power to account.

We seek to help news organizations transform from within. We’ll be selecting two news organizations to pilot this program over the next 18 months. Each “Equity and Inclusion Transformation Embed” will run six months.

One will be selected out of the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative (formerly known as Table Stakes), the other through a competitive national call-out. For-profit, independent and nonprofit news outlets will be eligible to apply. The application will be made public in late 2019.

For the Maynard Institute, this is about more than just diversity around the room, although that is vitally important. It’s about the need for journalists of color and those of diverse backgrounds to have a voice in what coverage looks like. To have the power and influence to help make real decisions about the strategy and direction of their news organizations, to have their whole selves reflected in the work they do and the roles they play.

The lens through which the world is seen cannot be viewed through one set of eyes. Our nation is diverse and the work we do, whether stories, sales, marketing, audience engagement or membership, must reflect that diversity.

Given the racial toxicity of our national discourse, the need for newsrooms to possess exceptional levels of cultural competency could not be more acute.

Issues that reach across the social fault lines of race, class, gender, generation, geography and sexual orientation are some of the most challenging to navigate in society, let alone our newsrooms.

This grant will empower us to develop a program to help news outlets go from a conversation about diversity, to becoming workplaces that are equitable and inclusive in service of the very diversity they seek.

Journalism is the truth serum of a democracy. But if the public distrusts the institutions that inform it, our society’s health is in peril. Diversity is the antidote to treat distrust. This work could not be more needed and more vital at this time in our nation’s history.

It won’t be easy.

We’ll be chronicling this journey as part of the grant, so keep an eye out for how the work is progressing. On behalf of the Board of Directors and alumni of the Maynard Institute, we deeply thank the Knight Foundation for its support.

We know Dori would raise a glass of red wine, offer a wry smile and then tell us, it’s time to get to work.

Martin G. Reynolds and Evelyn Hsu
Maynard Institute co-executive directors

–

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation is a national foundation with strong local roots. We invest in journalism, in the arts, and in the success of cities where brothers John S. and James L. Knight once published newspapers. Our goal is to foster informed and engaged communities, which we believe are essential for a healthy democracy. For more, visit kf.org.

About the Maynard Institute

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is the nation’s oldest organization dedicated to helping the news media accurately portray all segments of society, particularly those often overlooked, such as communities of color. The media plays a pivotal role in shaping our perceptions of each other. The distorted coverage of communities of color influences public policy and the decisions we make in our personal lives. Maynard seeks to help news media achieve both a diverse staff and provide the public with the most accurate and nuanced coverage possible. For more information visit mije.org