Fire Up Fellows enjoy training, camaraderie at Oakland kickoff

The Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program launched July 29 in Oakland with training designed to build new business models, help Fire Up Fellows dig into the value proposition of their work, and apply the Maynard Institute’s Fault Lines^® framework to their journalism and understanding of audience.

Fellows inventoried their resources and revenue streams, and they learned to identify their key activities and key partners. 

Doris Truong, deputy director of the Fire Up program, led a session on listening for values to deepen relationships. 

“We started selecting this cohort in the spring, so it’s truly inspiring to see them come together for the first time,” Truong said. “By sharing their successes and obstacles, they realize they’re not alone and they can support each other despite their distinct audiences. We also learned a theme of commitment to community runs through this cohort.”

Finding common ground

After an introduction to Maynard Institute history, Fire Up Fellows along with colleagues from their respective outlets attended a mixer with California Propel Local News Initiative partners and Bay Area journalists to discuss journalism and how to overcome industry challenges. 

Héctor Félix Jr., publisher and president of El Informador del Valle, said the first few days of the Fire Up program were “a great, one-of-a-kind learning experience in an entrepreneurship program that fires up your business idea for success.”

Martin G. Reynolds, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute, said it was invigorating to open the program and to witness California’s investment in local news directly supporting publishers who serve vastly different communities.

“My session on the Fault Lines® and belonging was intended to show the Fellows that biases and blind spots don’t just create challenges within an organization,” Reynolds said. “They can also mean missed opportunities to build trust and deepen relationships with existing and new audiences, think more expansively about revenue opportunities and forge partnerships they otherwise might not have considered.”

Considering multiple viewpoints

This initial training offered Fellows and their colleagues frameworks to consider different perspectives as entrepreneurs and as members of their communities.

“I appreciated the chance to review our business model and think more carefully about our audience, services, and revenue opportunities,” Faisal Karimi, founder and director of Nowruz Media, said. “… I also enjoyed learning from other media entrepreneurs and sharing our experiences and challenges.”

Fellows were asked to expand on existing business plans.

“The Oakland sessions were useful in a way most training isn’t,” said James Luckey Jr., publisher and editor of Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California. The trainers “didn’t let us map the whole business. They made us pick one new revenue stream, build [a model] and defend it in front of the room. That’s the part that stuck. I’ve sat through plenty of workshops where you leave with a nice worksheet and nothing to do on Monday. This wasn’t that.”

The Fire Up program, which provides each outlet with a $20,000 grant, continues through January with two additional in-person trainings and Zoom sessions on audience, community and product.

Occupational hazards and frontline reporting

By Celeste Barker Bright for Nonprofit Megaphone, contains promotional content for the Maynard Institute and additional reporting from Amani Hamed.

Key Takeaways

• Journalists and supporting staff face real occupational hazards: frontline reporting drives secondary trauma, PTSD, depression, anxiety and substance misuse that often goes unrecognized.
• Women, historically marginalized groups, those with prior mental illness and war correspondents are often most vulnerable, although strong relationships can help buffer distress.
• Freelancers lack vital staff benefits and support and often fear that admitting to mental health challenges will cost them work.
• Journalism’s culture of toughness often discourages help-seeking.
• Covering racial violence, race-based online abuse, unwelcoming newsrooms and unequal access to care can be harmful to journalists of color.
• Newsrooms owe a duty of care to their staff, including education, resources and trauma-informed leadership.

Journalists who cover war, crime, disaster and civil unrest are often the first witnesses to human tragedy. Yet the psychological cost of that work is only beginning to be recognized, and it’s not always limited to what we think of as conflict journalism. A growing body of research shows that the people who bring us the most critical news stories, including supporting newsroom staff, carry mental health burdens that go largely unacknowledged and untreated.

Trauma as an Occupational Hazard

Much of the harm journalists absorb is indirect, yet no less powerful. Here’s how exposure to distressing events and content impacts media professionals.

Secondary and Vicarious Trauma

Providing news coverage of shootings, interviewing survivors of violence, editing graphic footage or arriving in the aftermath of a crime can cause either secondary trauma or vicarious trauma in a news reporter. These are different but often overlapping stress responses to witnessing or hearing about someone else’s firsthand trauma. 

These forms of trauma are common among frontline workers, and journalists — who repeatedly encounter the suffering of others — are no exception. This hidden but deeply harmful mental health crisis affects American journalists and their managers in ways that can cause a variety of challenges, including compassion fatigue, alcohol misuse, depression, anxiety and even suicidal ideation.

PTSD, Depression, and Anxiety

The most acute outcomes mirror those seen in soldiers and emergency responders. Journalists arrive at the same terrible scenes as first responders and can suffer post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the same way. Left unaddressed, trauma can erode a reporter’s ability to work and to sustain healthy personal relationships. 

Prevalence data reinforces the concern: in 2022, for example, more than 60% of media professionals surveyed across several countries reported elevated anxiety, and journalists covering war and conflict showed significantly higher rates of PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

Burnout

A 2025 survey of 463 journalists across Europe found that 60% of journalists surveyed had experienced some level of burnout.

In 2023, the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media released their “local news burnout report,” a survey of more than 500 local journalists by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media.

Using the “Copenhagen Burnout Inventory,” a research questionnaire tool to physical and psychological fatigue, the UNC Hussman and Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media report found that approximately 70% of journalists surveyed had experienced personal and work-related burnout, and 72% had thought about leaving their current job.

Journalists, who often view their career as more of a calling because of its benefit to society, then fall into a “vocational crisis:” do they stay in a profession where they have found their life’s mission, but are killing themselves to make ends meet? Or, do they leave journalism for marketing and trade making a difference for making enough money?

Others, like Maynard faculty member Leslie Rangel, have had to radically change their relationship to work in order to remain in journalism. Rangel faced burnout as a television journalist and started “The News Yogi” to help fellow journalists build resilience and find their center. (She will lead a workshop on Resilience and Balance, Strategies for Managing Burnout at the Propel Regional Training Series implemented by the Maynard Institute in Burbank in October.)

Burnout remains a problem in journalism, and as Rangel continues in journalism as Deputy Managing Editor of the Barbed Wire, she says these resilience practices are also lessons she’s applying to herself.

Who Is Most at Risk

Not everyone is affected equally by the mental health challenges of covering distressing phenomena. Psychiatrist Anthony Feinstein, who has studied frontline journalists for two decades, has found that being a woman or having a prior history of mental illness increases the likelihood of PTSD symptoms. His research also points to a powerful protective factor: strong personal relationships act as a buffer against distress. Other historically marginalized groups can also be at increased risk for experiencing PTSD and other disorders.

A Double-Edged Sword for Freelancers

Financial pressures across the media industry have reshaped who does stressful reporting and how. With advertising revenue collapsing and layoffs mounting, a growing share of media professionals now work in freelance journalist jobs. These contract reporters often lack the medical benefits, institutional resources and everyday camaraderie of a newsroom. Many also fear that admitting to trauma could cost them future assignments, leaving them first responders to tragedy without a safety net.

A Culture of Silence

Perhaps the greatest barrier to getting mental health support is stigma. Journalism has long prized toughness and self-reliance, and many reporters worry that acknowledging pain will mark them as weak or unfit for the job. That reticence keeps people from seeking help even when support exists. 

Experts argue the remedy is partly a matter of professional culture: newsrooms must normalize asking for help, treat self-care as seriously as fact-checking and encourage colleagues to check in on one another. Journalists who receive therapy typically fare measurably better than those who do not.

Race-Based Mental Health Challenges

For journalists of color, these pressures are often compounded by burdens their white colleagues rarely face.

Reporting on Trauma to One’s Own Community

Covering racial violence can be uniquely painful when the victims share your identity. Black journalists who reported on the killings of George Floyd and others have described the strain of returning, day after day, to stories of Black death and injustice, with some dreading the morning news or needing to step away entirely. 

That personal toll is heightened by disparities in care: only about one in three Black Americans who need mental health services receives them, and stigma within the community can further discourage help-seeking.

Discrimination, Abuse, and Unequal Newsrooms

The challenges extend beyond the stories themselves. Minority journalists frequently confront targeted online abuse. Pew Research Center data indicates that roughly 27% of Black, 27% of Asian and 20% of Hispanic journalists report harassment based on race or ethnicity, compared with just 5% of white journalists. 

Many also navigate predominantly white newsrooms that can feel unwelcoming, face pressure to constantly prove themselves or find themselves pigeonholed into covering only their own communities. Historical and collective traumas can add a further layer, turning a single assignment into a trigger for deeper generational pain.

Toward a Duty of Care

Across the research, one theme recurs: news organizations have a moral obligation to protect the people they send toward danger or into distressing situations. That means education, accessible resources, trauma-informed leadership and attention to those most exposed. Healthy journalists, ultimately, produce better journalism — and the quality of the news depends on it.

Build an Equity-Driven Culture of Care With the Maynard Institute

The Maynard Institute for Journalism Education was founded in 1977 by Robert C. Maynard and a cohort of news leaders representing diverse perspectives across the Fault Lines of race, class, geography, generation, gender and more. Ever since, our newsroom transformation and other training programs have helped create decades of news industry trailblazers, all of whom belong to the “Maynard Family” — a community of deep care and intergenerational support for journalists of diverse beats and backgrounds.

In 2026, a budget allocation from the State of California continued support for the California Local News Fellowship, run through Berkeley Journalism, and the Propel Initiative, implemented by the Maynard Institute. The California Local News Fellowship places early-career reporters and editors in local California newsrooms in two-year fellowships. The Maynard Institute provides intensive skill-building, training and mentoring to California Local News Fellows. 

By implementing the Propel Initiative and its associated programs the Propel Regional Training Series and the Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program, the Maynard Institute strengthens local journalism, training newsroom leaders to fortify a sustainable, diverse news ecosystem. 

Together, the California Local News Fellowship and Propel Initiative programs support hundreds of newsrooms annually. Explore our programs or connect with us to see how we can help you or your organization navigate the biggest challenges in journalism today. If you’re able, consider supporting our work so we can continue to elevate the quality of journalism in the U.S. from every angle. 

Meet the Fire Up Fellows

The Fire Up Entrepreneur Program, as part of the Propel Initiative, is training eight news organizations in revenue, audience, product and community with a focus on ensuring sustainability. Participants will work with experts in business, audience strategy and other topics.

The inaugural cohort of Fire Up Fellows represent the power and potential of diverse news in the State of California. Covering various beats, ethnic communities, geographical areas and language groups, the Fellows are using the program as an opportunity to expand their reach, create lasting sustainability and deepen their coverage to better serve their audiences.

Katherine Ann Rowlands, Executive Director and Founder, Bay City News Foundation

Rowlands is a longtime champion of local journalism. Bay City News, a regional news service she bought in 2018, has expanded to cover 13 counties, supplying trustworthy, original journalism for the media ecosystem, from TV and radio to newspapers to start-up digital outlets in the greater Bay Area. Its nonprofit affiliate, which publishes free content at LocalNewsMatters.org, has trained 60 paid interns, adopted transformative technology and published thousands of stories that would otherwise not be told.

Through Fire Up, Rowlands will develop Bay City News Labs to examine how to track bot traffic at the Cloudflare or WordPress plugin level to quantify and audit how intellectual property is being utilized by AI companies. What Bay City News learns could lead to revenue, block exploitation or monetize assets with the right partners. The takeaways will be shared publicly with the news ecosystem.

Lauren Mapp, Co-Founder/Journalist, Daylight San Diego

Mapp (she/her/akaónha) is a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk). She is a Daylight San Diego co-founder and journalist who has covered Indigenous communities, caregiving, senior care, social justice, art, music, travel, food and culinary traditions since 2005. Prior to Daylight, she worked for The San Diego Union-Tribune, inewsource, Times of San Diego, North Coast Current, Indian Time and The People’s Voice. She was the outstanding graduate for the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University in 2019.

Daylight San Diego’s audience increasingly relies on social media and alternative formats for news. Through Fire Up, Daylight San Diego seeks to revamp its newsletter ecosystem to increase engagement, grow sponsorship revenue and strengthen sustainability. By January 2027, Daylight aims to reduce video skip rates, achieve consistent engagement and generate 10 percent of organizational revenue through newsletter-related sponsorships and ads.

Priya Lava, Operations, India Currents

Lava has developed expertise in digital publishing, audience growth and revenue strategy through programs with Google News Initiative, LION Publishers and Newspack. She completed three years of training with Dan Oshinsky on newsletter growth and engagement. At India Currents, she manages communications and operations related to advertising sales and plays an active role in website development and digital transformation initiatives.

India Currents will launch Rooted in Care, a podcast connecting South Asian immigrants to trusted resources on aging, women’s health, mental health and civic engagement. Featuring experts, community leaders and service providers. The podcast will offer practical, culturally relevant guidance while leveraging partnerships with agencies and nonprofits to expand community reach.

Héctor Félix Jr., Publisher, El Informador

From a young age, Félix immersed himself in all aspects of the family business, El Informador del Valle. As a teenager, he gained hands-on experience in newspaper sales, reporting, photography, videography, graphic design and weekly distribution. His early involvement laid the foundation for his leadership and continued commitment to community journalism.

El Informador will do research within the community and with potential sponsors to determine the best ways to heighten ad visibility. These experiments will provide a way for El Informador del Valle to continue to uplift important stories without succumbing to outdated business models.

Carlos Hernandez, Editor, El Latino Central Coast

Hernandez is an award-winning journalist, editor and publisher with extensive experience in Spanish-language and bilingual media on the East and West coasts. He is the editor and publisher of El Latino Central Coast Newspaper, a trusted bilingual outlet serving Latino and immigrant communities across Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. Hernandez is committed to strengthening bilingual journalism and expanding El Latino’s role as a bridge between the local society and the Latino community.

El Latino’s “Digital Forward” project pushes its editors beyond reliance on print ads. With new revenue opportunities, the outlet continue to serve Central Coast bilingual communities for free. We’ll expand service journalism for immigrants, especially around health, immigration, education and civic information while building long-term sponsorship and digital engagement strategies.

Rob Waters, Editor, MindSite News

As MindSite News launches its Bay Area bureau, Waters returns to his roots in Bay Area community journalism. In the 1980s, he was editor of the Tenderloin Times, which reported extensively on mental health. His journey since has largely focused on covering health and mental health through a social justice lens.

The Bay Area has no dedicated mental health news outlet, and MindSite can fill this gap while boosting its sustainability by opening new revenue streams. To ensure the coverage reaches communities most in need, MindSite will tap into established relationships with community-based service and advocacy organizations.

Faisal Karimi, Founder/Director, Nowruz Media

Karimi is a senior journalist, journalism educator and media entrepreneur with more than two decades of experience. He is the founder and director of Nowruz Media, a multilingual California-based community newsroom serving Afghan immigrants, and he founded the Afghanistan Institute for Research and Media Studies. He is an alumnus of the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University and currently teaches journalism at Sacramento State University.

Nowruz Media will develop the Nowruz Community Hub, a multilingual resource desk for Afghan immigrants in California. Through Farsi/Dari, Pashto and English explainers, guides, WhatsApp, newsletters and community listening, Nowruz provide trusted information to drive civic engagement and increase public safety while building a stronger audience and revenue model.

James Luckey Jr., Publisher, Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California

Luckey is the editor of Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California, a Black press institution founded in 1977 that serves Bakersfield, Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley. Born and raised in Bakersfield, Luckey grew up inside the newsroom under the founding family’s mentorship before stepping into leadership. A Kern County Black Chamber of Commerce honoree, he is modernizing the organization’s digital presence while preserving its century-long commitment to Black community journalism.

Black community stories are buried by algorithms and missed by legacy outlets, so Observer Group Newspapers is launching News Observed, a mobile platform to let Black Southern Californians submit reports on their own neighborhoods. Observer Group will create a pipeline with editorial oversight and plan to publish at least 50 community-contributed stories before January 2027.

The Maynard Institute announces inaugural Fire Up Entrepreneurship cohort

The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education is proud to announce the inaugural cohort for the Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program, which starts this month in Oakland. 

The cohort consists of eight California-serving newsrooms. Each will receive seven months of training in revenue, audience, product and community plus mentorship on their proposed project and a $20,000 grant. Project ideas range from surfacing untold Black stories to ensuring free bilingual news in the Central Coast to mitigating AI threats to audience traffic.

Fire Up is part of the Propel Initiative to strengthen California’s multi-lingual media ecosystem, ensuring long-term sustainability of local public service journalism for underserved localities. 

The eight cohort news organizations are Bay City News Foundation, Daylight San Diego, India Currents, El Informador del Valle, El Latino Central Coast, MindSite News, Nowruz Media and Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California. 

The first cohort will convene July 29 in Oakland, California for the program’s orientation and kickoff.

Meet the first Fire Up cohort

Bay City News Foundation is working to mitigate the threat of AI technology undercutting audience traffic. 

Daylight San Diego will build on its local journalism startup presence and grow audience through alternative news formats.

India Currents is expanding its reach as a vital civic connector through a podcast for South Asian immigrants to be shared by strategic partners. 

El Informador del Valle will experiment with different ways to attract advertisers in a community that relies on print, using the Fire Up program to identify successful and sustainable approaches. 

El Latino Central Coast will reinforce the importance of free bilingual news as a bridge to Central Coast immigrants while growing its digital presence.

MindSite News seeks to broaden Bay Area reporting into the under-covered topic of navigating mental health disparities.

Nowruz Media will create a multilingual resource hub for Afghan immigrants in California, the U.S. state with the largest Afghan diaspora population. 

Observer Group Newspapers of Southern California plans to surface untold Black stories through a community platform to reach and expand Black audiences. 

For detailed information about the proposed projects as well as the Fire Up Fellows, click here.

Where are Fire Up newsrooms?

Fire Up is made possible by a budget allocation from the State of California and is part of the Propel Initiative to support local news, with the goal of safeguarding democracy and encouraging civic engagement by giving all citizens access to quality journalism. The journalism organizations in this cohort serve audiences statewide, including 26 bipartisan Assembly districts and 12 bipartisan Senate districts. 

The newsrooms cover and are based in these Assembly districts: 

• 5, Joe Patterson (R). 
• 6, Maggy Krell (D). 
• 7, Josh Hoover (R). 
• 12, Damon Connolly (D). 
• 13, Rhodesia Ransom (D). 
• 14, Buffy Wicks (D). 
• 15, Anamarie Ávila Farías (D). 
• 18, Mia Bonta (D). 
• 19, Catherine Stefani (D). 
• 21, Diane Papan (D). 
• 25, Ash Kalra (D). 
• 27, Esmeralda Z. Soria (D). 
• 32, Stan Ellis (R).
• 36, Jeff Gonzalez (R). 
• 37, Gregg Hart (D). 
• 38, Steve Bennett (D). 
• 39, Juan Carrillo (D).
• 42, Jacqui Irwin (D). 
• 47, Greg Wallis (R). 
• 74, Laurie Davies (R).
• 75, Carl DeMaio (R). 
• 76, Dr. Darshana R. Patel (D). 
• 77, Tasha Boerner (D). 
• 78, Christopher M. Ward (D). 
• 79, Dr. La Shae Sharp-Collins (D). 
• 80, David A. Alvarez (D). 

The newsrooms cover and are based in these state Senate districts: 

• 6, Roger Niello (R).
• 7, Jesse Arreguín (D).
• 12, Shannon Grove (R).
• 15, Dave Cortese (D).
• 18, Steve Padilla (D). 
• 19, Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh (R).
• 21, Monique Limón (D).
• 27, Henry Stern (D).
• 32, Kelly Seyarto (R).
• 38, Catherine S. Blakespear (D). 
• 39, Akilah Weber Pierson (D).
• 40, Brian W. Jones (R).

California invests in local journalism, leads national model

By Andrea Lampros, Communications Director, UC Berkeley Journalism. Originally published by UC Berkeley Journalism.

California is reinforcing its role as the national leader in rebuilding local journalism, approving a $15-million investment in reporting and editing fellowships and newsroom leadership training and sustainability initiatives in the state budget signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week.

This funding supports the UC Berkeley Journalism-based California Local News Fellowship— the nation’s largest publicly funded journalism initiative — and the Maynard Institute’sPropel Initiative, a groundbreaking leadership and newsroom sustainability effort led in collaboration with American Community Media, California Black Media and Latino Media Collaborative.

The budget also includes $10 million for the Civic Media Program, funded by the state, which will be matched by a minimum $10-million contribution by Google.

“California has long led the nation in creating opportunity for its millions of residents. This model of funding independent local journalism and newsroom sustainability is yet another way California is showing leadership, especially at a time when the dark clouds of authoritarianism and the scourge of disinformation are threatening to undermine freedom of the press,” said Michael D. Bolden, dean of UC Berkeley Journalism. “Lawmakers have shown a steadfast commitment to local transparency and accountability and to democracy itself. They realize that the public good requires a resolute investment in trustworthy news and information.”

The California Local News Fellowship and Propel Initiative together provide a national model at a time of crisis for journalism, a period marked by an unprecedented rise in news desertsand the plunging number of local journalists per capita.

“California’s lawmakers have again recognized that everything we care about in our local communities — from affordable housing to excellent education to safeguarding the environment — is enabled by robust local journalism,” said former state Sen. Steve Glazer who championed the local news fellowship with $25 million in state funding in 2022.

Glazer retired from the Senate in 2024 but has continued to be deeply engaged in supporting renewed funding for local journalism.

This year, legislative leadership for the state’s investment was provided by Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón (D-Santa Barbara), Sens. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield), John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Salinas), Assemblymembers David Alvarez(D-San Diego), Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park), Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Lori D. Wilson (D-Suisun City). Many other legislators stepped up to support the funding.

The California Local News Fellowship program led by journalist Monica Campbell has nearly 70 early-career reporting fellows currently serving communities from Shasta County to the Inland Empire. To date, 110 fellows have produced more than 10,000 stories to help keep Californians informed about important issues, such as immigration, housing, education, and more. The latest funding ensures that fellows will serve California communities through 2029.

Fellows and partner newsrooms are independent, competitively selected and based in counties that currently account for approximately 90 percent of California’s population. State funding has supported four cohorts of full-time, two-year reporting fellows, editing fellowships and new health reporting fellowships, which also receive support from the California Health Care Foundation.

The Propel Initiative complements the California Local News Fellowship by helping community and ethnic media organizations become stronger, more resilient and financially sustainable. Led by the Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education in partnership with American Community Media, California Black Media and Latino Media Collaborative, Propel invests in the organizations that collectively serve more than 20 million Californians with trusted local news and information.

“This investment by lawmakers affirms a simple truth: Journalists, storytellers and news organizations serving California’s diverse communities must have the capacity to provide the trusted information people need to make informed decisions, hold institutions accountable and participate fully in civic life,” said Martin G. Reynolds, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute. “More than support for journalism, this is a commitment to ensuring every Californian — regardless of where they live or the language they speak — has access to trusted news and information.”

Through Propel, participating news organizations and media professionals receive training, technical assistance, and strategic support to strengthen editorial leadership, newsroom management, and storytelling through regional institutes, management development, and peer learning; build organizational capacity through technical assistance in audience engagement, business development, legal and journalism safety and operational best practices; create sustainable revenue through the Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program and the Community Media Marketplace, a first-of-its-kind statewide platform that helps community and ethnic media organizations compete collectively for major public and private advertising campaigns.

The 2026-2027 state funding will fund a fifth cohort of reporting and editing fellows, while continuing the Propel Initiative — extending California’s strategy to strengthen local journalism statewide.

Statements from partner organizations

American Community Media 

“This renewed investment is a vote of confidence in the vital role that ethnic and community media play in keeping California informed, connected and represented. We’re grateful for the continued Propel partnership and committed to building on the momentum it represents.” 

—Jaya Padmanabhan, Executive Director of American Community Media

“The tireless advocacy and coordinated effort of this coalition over the last several weeks showed lawmakers the true, undeniable power of the community press. This $15 million renewal is a crucial victory for information equity, ensuring our newsrooms can continue reporting on the ground where it matters most. Looking ahead, this isn’t just a budget win for today — it is a vital launchpad for building a sustainable, long-term ecosystem for ethnic media across California.”

—Julian Do, Co-Director of American Community Media 

California Black Media 

“This investment is a testament to the value California’s leaders place on the role local newsrooms and community advocates play in our civic life. I’m grateful to Governor Newsom, lawmakers, our coalition partners, and supporters across state government for fighting side by side with us to secure the funds necessary to strengthen California’s media infrastructure and keep trusted local information flowing to the people who need it most.” 

—Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director of California Black Media

Latino Media Collaborative 

“Sustaining Latino and news media serving communities of color is a non-negotiable public infrastructure necessity. Alongside our partners at California Black Media, American Community Media, and the Maynard Institute, we extend our deepest thanks to Governor Newsom, Speaker Rivas, Pro Tem Limón, Senators Laird, Pérez, Hurtado, Glazer, Allen, and Assemblymembers Alvarez, Wicks and Wilson. This historic victory ensures that trusted newsrooms reflecting and serving California’s diverse population can continue their essential work.” 

— Arturo Carmona, President of the Latino Media Collaborative 

Letters to his children:

On Robert C. Maynard’s predictions and legacy on the occasion of his birthday

By Amani Hamed, Community Engagement Manager, the Maynard Institute

“It was once said by an eminent journalist that our business at best is ‘writing the first rough draft of history.’ The emphasis in that formulation is obviously on the word rough: in such a process, we are bound to be excessive when the circumstances are dramatic. But we have a responsibility that senators and mayors, police chiefs and attorneys general don’t have. That is the responsibility that accompanies the beleaguered blessings of the First Amendment. It is to be ever so restrained and thoughtful about the implications in the expressions of those with partisan interests in the stories we cover. Hyperbole has no place in the news.” – Robert C. Maynard, “No Place for Hyperbole,” 1973.

Today, Wednesday June 17, is Robert C. Maynard’s birthday. He was born on this day in 1937, and passed away after a long battle with cancer in 1993. Today, he would be 89 years old.

Looking back through the essays, articles and memoirs of Robert C. Maynard collected in the book “Letters to My Children,” compiled after his death by his daughter, Dori J. Maynard, it’s difficult not to view him as a sort of journalistic oracle.

Doubly difficult is the experience of looking through his predictions, his lamentations, his sharp critical analysis of an America struggling to limp into the television news revolution post-Jim Crow and realizing that not nearly enough has changed since his time.

His predictions and lamentations appear equally prescient; the things he predicted have come to pass. The things he mourned as symptoms racism, classism, sexism, geographical and generational bias have, in many ways, lingered.

I struggle to grasp what I would say to him to explain this moment and the things that have transpired since his death. How could I, as a journalist, convey to Robert C. Maynard the murder of George Floyd, the DEI renaissance amid the Black Lives Matter movement, the COVID-19 pandemic, the January 6th insurrection? How could I explain a second Trump administration, the defunding of public media, the attacks on our Civil Rights?

The shortest answer is that I couldn’t. I wouldn’t endeavor to explain. I would simply have him read the news.

Many of us read those more recent headlines as events unfolded. We watched those events tumble out on our television news or social media feeds. Some of us were the journalists recording events like the pandemic shutdown, the student encampments protesting genocide in Palestine, the ICE raids in Chicago and Minneapolis, and recorded them as that “first rough draft of history.”

The words Bob Maynard wrote decades ago may sting in how their truth reverberates, and the echo of the past sounds only too similar to the shrieking injustices of our present reality.

Though examining his words it is easiest to see the things that remain, the wounds our nation has not worked hard enough to heal, a deeper meditation reflects glimpses of the vision he sought to make real: a nation in which “all Americans have front-door access to the truth.” In which journalists of diverse backgrounds tell the stories of their communities, and give us all the tools to shape our nation’s future.

Bob Maynard on Gun Violence:

“The effect of this phenomenon is best viewed from two vantage points. I speak of the funeral homes and the emergency wards of the hospitals. It is in these places that the import of what we have allowed to happen can be fully appreciated.” – A Deadly Proliferation of Guns, 1988.

In the year 2025, mass shootings killed 358 people and injured at least 1,843 others. Even with gun violence on the rise in 1988, and Bob Maynard witnessing the dialogue (or lack thereof) between “urban” and “country” gun owners, the gun lobby, medical experts and grieving parents, I shudder to think what he would have made of Sandy Hook. Of Uvalde. Of Annunciation School in Minneapolis, or a Masjid in San Diego.

As a journalist and someone who believed in the power of good data and the shifting of perspective to cover all angles of a story, I think Bob would have appreciated the intense and thorough reporting done by the Washington Post on the damage done by AR-15s. Using crime scene photos and in-depth analysis from witnesses, surgeons and firearms experts, the Post also created shocking (and accurate) visualizations to illustrate the effect of an AR-15 on the human body.

Though the illustrations and use of crime scene photos may have been considered in poor taste, they gave the American public, or at least those who had not witnessed gun violence personally, a more complete understanding of a national epidemic.

“News value is easier to judge than fairness or taste because the picture must first meet the test of relevancy,” Maynard said in his 1973 essay Taste, Fairness, and News Value. “But there is another element in news value that is important. And that is freshness of approach. A picture might be of something of which we have all seen 100 photos. It might be a person, a monument, or a building, done in such a way as to arrest the eye and tell us something new about the subject.”

Though gun violence persists, journalists covering not only mass shootings but gender-based violence, suicides and accidental gun deaths are solutions-oriented, highly-skilled and trauma-informed.

One of them is Helina Selemon, Maynard 200 alum and the new Editing Fellow at The Trace, “the only team of journalists exclusively dedicated to reporting on our country’s gun violence crisis.”

Bob Maynard on Racism

“Many white Americans, including distinguished commentators, will tell you that race is no longer an issue in America. They say remedial programs are no longer needed. After all, they argue, discrimination is now against the law. But Americans of color will respond that racism is not so easily expunged.” – Racism, 1991.

After the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May of 2020, a DEI renaissance of sorts was ushered in by protests against systemic racial injustice. Almost before the ink was dry on waves of policies on diversity, equity and inclusion, corporations had a change of heart. The government attacks on DEI initiatives were more pointed, less a chilling effect and more a swift blast of liquid nitrogen.

These cycles of adoption and abandonment of DEI principles and hiring practices were seen in the layoffs of journalists in places like the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. Maynard 200 fellowship alumni Brianna Tucker and Amber Ferguson were affected by layoffs that disproportionately affected newer staff, women, Latinx and Black employees and LGBTQIA+ reporters.

Increasingly, a narrative is being fabricated that we live in a post-racism world, but even in 1991, Bob Maynard knew what journalists and people of color have known since 1865: laws and policies change and shift, but “racism is not so easily expunged.”

Thankfully journalists are also not so easily discouraged. No layoff could stop Amber Ferguson from being a girl with drive. Brianna Tucker is still reporting breaking news, this time for the Huffington Post. Other Maynard alumni report on intersections of life and race, the ever-present fault lines that Bob Maynard built his training methodology on. Emily Elena Dugdale reports for the LA Public Press on potential ICE intimidation at the polls, Aallyah Wright covers Black life in rural areas of the American South.

Racism persists, but so do the journalists Robert C. Maynard would never meet, but who nevertheless became his legacy.

Bob Maynard on Technology and the News

“Most of the emphasis of the new technology has been on the production aspects of the business. The publishers and craft unions are in protracted discussions all across the land over the loss of jobs to machinery and the problem of which unions will have jurisdiction over which aspects of the new technology.” – Technology and the News, 1973.

When Bob Maynard wrote this in 1973, copy editors were still mandatory and valued staff, print journalism was alive and well, and digital photography was having a troubled infancy.

I wonder now what Bob Maynard would make of the havoc AI is wreaking on already fragile digital and media literacy, on our over-reliance on chatbots and our quick investment in stories and images fabricated (or hallucinated) by AI. That’s to say nothing of the jobs placed on the chopping block as journalists, illustrators, photographers and even editors are culled in favor of the bottom line.

I feel Bob would blanch at the flippancy and disdain with which certain AI proponents seem to regard not only the profession of journalism but the First Amendment. I also feel the work of Maynard alum-turned-faculty Ernesto Aguilar has done in AI-assisted reporting and AI reporting ethics could elicit a certain pride, as would the critical and community-focused reporting on AI by Maynard alumni TaMaryn Waters and Megha Satyanarayana.

Bob was skeptical of anyone who pushed new technology with little thought to how it would affect livelihoods and the craft and calling of journalism, but he was quick to adopt things that could be responsibly wielded by trained reporters with a solid understanding of journalistic ethics. After all, he was there when the Institute that would later bear his name implemented one of the first digital reporting training programs in the country when the internet was in its infancy and people were still asking Jeeves.

The future

His words today read may read like stark warnings of the future he saw being shaped. The earliest of his essays quoted here is from 1973. As though to take up the struggle of influencing the future taking shape before him, he would co-found the Institute for Journalism Education four years after writing Technology and the News. Twenty years after writing it he would leave us, and the Institute would take him as its namesake.

Now, we labor in service of the next generation of journalists. The journalists Bob Maynard trained personally have witnessed and covered events and shaped our deeper understanding of their roots in our society and their effect on our communities. In his time, Black journalists didn’t report on police brutality and the “race riots” of the 1960s, LGBTQIA+ journalists were forced to report on the AIDS crisis from the closet, Asian-American journalists covering America’s war on Vietnam were rare and endangered. Today, terrible events still happen. Racism and homophobia remain entrenched in the systems that undergird this country’s foundations, misogyny and class disparity color our daily lives, attacks on press freedom abound.

But the journalists who have been trained by the Institute he co-founded since his death 34 years ago have changed the way we see, experience and change our world. Black reporters covered George Floyd. Latinx journalists cover ICE raids and concentration camps. Asian-American journalists covered COVID-19 and hate crimes against Asian community members. Trans journalists have crafted style guides that cover everything from pronouns to anti-trans legislation.

Robert C. Maynard may not have been able to destroy outright the systems of oppression he saw enduring, but he lived and died the way all great men do: leaving behind them work destined to remain unfinished, but having trained their successors to take up their tools in their absence.

Meeting the Moment in Chicago

Maynard Institute’s training helped editors strengthen skills in ever-changing industry

By Vani Subramony, Master’s Student at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

“We are in the city of Pope Leo, so we will have confession this morning!” exclaimed Martin Reynolds, co-executive director at the Maynard Institute, as he began his session about leadership. The room of editors, new and experienced, brightened as they eagerly began to share their “Why?” for becoming managers.

The Maynard Institute’s Regional Training Series found a home at Northwestern University’s Medill School in downtown Chicago in early June. The two-day program created space for news leaders to collaborate and practice management skills at a time of, what Maynard Regional Training Director Odette Alcazaren-Keeley described as, “imperiled Constitutional rights, volatility in our industry and assaults on journalism.”

The goal of the series, institute leaders said, is to train frontline editors and managers who are often thrust into their positions with very little assistance. Since 2025, the Maynard Institute has hosted training sessions across the country. The Chicago training drew nearly 50 journalists from a range of non-profit, for-profit and ethnic media. 

Early in the day, Medill Dean Charles Whitaker spoke about the role of the university in creating a new generation of leaders at a time of tumult in the industry. 

“At this time of incredible disruption and uncertainty in the industry, we thought we had an obligation to assert ourselves in the field,” he said. “Part of that is providing training and leadership to young and emerging leaders but also to established leaders that were also having a difficult time.”

Program faculty, including Medill’s Mackenzie Warren, echoed this sentiment throughout the event, stating the importance of embracing the calling of journalism at this moment in history.

“There are a lot of reasons that people might suggest you not be a journalist today. It’s dangerous. You could be labeled an enemy of the state or an enemy of the people,” Warren said. “And yet, all of those reasons are why to be a journalist.”

Warren, interim executive director of Medill’s Local News Initiative, has been working with the Maynard Institute for more than 10 years. He said Medill shares the same core values as his collaborators at the institute. 

“The health and wellness of our community is directly tied to the health and wellness of the information our residents have to make their choices – whether that’s voting, grocery shopping, schooling, health or parenting,” Warren said. “We want to make sure that every Chicagoan has access to trustworthy news and information.”

With his colleague Zach Metzger, director of the Medill State of Local News Project, Warren kicked off the training sessions by discussing the condition of local news across the country. On the second day, he moderated a panel of news leaders about the state of media. Executives from Block Club Chicago, Impremedia, Chicago News Weekly and sports media company The Bigs spoke about funding, audience expansion and what it’s like contributing to local news at this time in history. 

“The panel was very invigorating, mainly because they talked about resources I had never heard of,” said Jacqualine Jarju, president and co-founder of the National Association of Black Journalist’s central and southern Illinois chapter. She said she came away with a lot of ideas about possible grant sources and future leadership trainings. 

Another key moment for many attendees, like Jarju, was Jean Marie Brown’s session on the Fault Lines framework. Evelyn Hsu, co-executive director of the Maynard Institute, cited Fault Lines as a key way of understanding the different perspectives that guide journalism.

“Those perspectives are influenced by race, class, gender, generation, geography and sexual orientation,” Hsu said. “This should make us aware of our own blind spots and how that could influence how we cover a story.”

Brown, who is associate professor of professional practice and director of student media at Texas Christian University’s Bob Schieffer College of Communication, had each attendee write about their Fault Lines. She cited her childhood in Indiana, education at Medill and age as aspects of identity that she acknowledges when reporting. 

“What reporting is supposed to do is reflect the audience and the community that is being served, and so today, we live in a nation that is multicultural and multi-ethnic,” Brown said. “Journalists need to go out and represent that in their reporting.”

Deborah Douglas, director of the Medill Solutions Journalism Hub and session presenter, also talked about the importance of diverse identities in the newsroom.

“Anytime the industry goes through a challenging time, whether that’s technological disruption or financial disruption, we’re affected especially through downsizing,” she said. “A lot of newsrooms haven’t valued the diverse perspectives that they lose when they downsize. Diversity is often the first thing to go.”

Also included in the two-day training were sessions on the use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom, project management, listening with integrity, navigating difficult conversations, managing big projects,  and Reynolds’ workshop about management that invoked the Chicagoan pope. 

Most striking about the training was the number of young editors in the room. 

“Young journalists are incredibly passionate about this craft,” Alcazaren-Keeley said. “If we’re able to provide a sense of belonging this early on, if they see themselves reflected in the industry and know they have a community of support behind them, then we have succeeded in that part of our mission.” 

One such journalist was Luis Velazquez, an editor for Cicero Independiente, a bilingual news organization in northern Illinois. Between sessions, Velazquez found himself collaborating with other editors and brainstorming ways to include more freelancers at the publication. 

“It’s a universal experience that editors are put in a role where there’s no guidelines,” he said. “I’m very grateful for the Maynard Institute for providing these resources amongst other connections and networks that help reporters and newsrooms.”

Taryn McFadden, the Chicago Reader’s culture editor, was also inspired to create positive change in the newsroom.

“We’ve had sessions about biases and how to show up in the workplace and be a good supervisor, and as a member of the younger generation, I strive to help our workplace become healthier, which helps us do better journalism,” she said.

McFadden said she sees great importance in capitalizing on diversity and identity in all newsrooms, including that of the Reader.

“Right now, there’s no separating politics and the state of the world from what we do all day, every day,” she said. “I see such a value in having a staff that can reflect the city back on itself.”

Leadership Essentials

The sessions and speakers who presented on June 4-5 at the Maynard-Medill Regional Training in Chicago:

News Leaders Panel: State of the Media in the Region – Panelists: Jesús del Toro, director general, general manager and editor in chief, Impremedia; Laura Miller, managing editor, Chicago News Weekly; Terrence Tomlin, co-founder and editorial director, The Bigs; and Maple Walker Lloyd, vice president of partnerships, Block Club Chicago;  and Mackenzie Warren, moderator.

Medill Research Briefing: Mackenzie Warren, interim executive director, Local News Initiative, Northwestern University Medill School, and Zach Metzger, director, Medill State of Local News Project 

The Manager’s Mindset – Stepping into Your Leadership Role: Martin G. Reynolds, co-executive director, Maynard Institute

Identifying Personal Values – A Listening Exercise: Doris Truong, deputy director, Maynard Institute Fire Up Entrepreneurship Program 

Fault Lines® in Motion: Jean Marie Brown, associate professor of professional practice, Bob Schieffer College of Communication, Texas Christian University 

AI with Integrity – Shaping Values-Driven Practices: Mei-Ling Hopgood, Medill Charles Deering McCormick Distinguished Clinical Professor, William F. Thomas Professor of Journalism 

Complicating the Narrative: Deborah Douglas, founding director, Medill Solutions Journalism Hub

Managing the BIG Story: Maria Carrillo, consultant and writing coach

Tension to Trust – Navigating Difficult Conversations: Felecia Henderson, senior director of strategic initiatives, Maynard Institute

The People Manager Balancing Act: Lisa-Ann Barnes, adjunct faculty, Northwestern University

A special thank you to our funders, partners, faculty and participants!

We would like to extend again our deep appreciation from our Institute leadership and entire team to our funders, partners, faculty and participants who attended the Maynard Regional Training in Chicago, in partnership with Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications and the Medill Local News Initiative.

Thank you for sharing your expertise, insights and care that enriched our Maynard-Medill Regional Training curriculum last week. Your sessions built on each other’s frameworks and delivered great impact in our allyship with program co-creators Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the Medill Local News Initiative, with support provided by the Knight Foundation.

Your high-calibre teaching and customized coaching reinvigorate the journalism work of another exceptional cohort of frontline editors and mid-level managers serving Chicago’s diverse news ecosystem, the region, and across the country.

We were energized by the enthusiasm of our participants and the energy (and spectacular weather!) of the lovely city of Chicago.

We hope all participants will stay in touch by following us on social media and joining our Maynard Communities of Practice.

A Joint statement from Propel Initiative Partners on proposed 2026-2027 California state budget

Legislative leaders released a proposed 2026–27 California State Budget that excludes funding for the Propel Initiative and California Local News Fellowship.

Journalism, particularly small, local and ethnic media, are facing a crisis. These two important programs have helped local journalism not only stay open, but have created innovative programs to help sustain them in the future. 

At a moment when immigrant communities and other historically underserved Californians need trusted information more than ever, these programs are helping strengthen local journalism across the state. 

Through Propel, California made an investment in ethnic and community media outlets that collectively serve more than 20 million hard to reach Californians. That needs to continue. The Fellowship is strengthening local reporting and developing the next generation of journalists.

For many Californians—particularly immigrants, communities of color, rural residents, and those who rely on in-language news—ethnic media is the most trusted source of information. These outlets play an essential role in helping communities understand critical issues, access vital resources, and participate fully in civic life.

We are grateful for the Legislature’s groundbreaking support of the California Local News Fellowship beginning in 2022 and last year’s investment in Propel. Continued investment in local and ethnic media is an investment in informed communities, civic participation, and a stronger democracy. We remain hopeful that legislative leaders will renew the full $15 million investment in the final budget before June 30.

Signed,

Arturo Carmona, President, Latino Media Collaborative

Regina Brown Wilson, Executive Director, California Black Media

Jaya Padmanabhan, Executive Director, American Community Media

Julian Do, Co-Director, American Community Media

Martin G. Reynolds, Co-Executive Director, The Robert C. Maynard Institute for Journalism Education

Click here to read an op-ed in CalMatters by Martin G. Reynolds, Co-Executive Director of The Maynard Institute on the proposed state budget for California for the years 2026-2027.

The Mirror Awards

Receiving the Lorraine Branham Award from The Syracuse University S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications

On Tuesday, May 19, 2026 the Maynard Institute was honored to receive the Lorraine Branham Award from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications. Named for former Newhouse dean and Maynard alum Lorraine Branham, who attended the Summer Program for Minority Journalists in 1977 before the Institute received its first official name, the award “recognizes a media organization that has worked to promote inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility in the news media over the previous year.”

Maynard Institute Board Chair John X. Miller spoke at the awards, and later wrote on the experience of attending the ceremony and reception hosted by Syracuse University.

“It was my honor and privilege to represent the Maynard Institute and introduce Evelyn and Martin at the Mirror Awards, where they accepted the Lorraine Branham Award on behalf of the Institute,” Miller wrote after the awards ceremony.

“Being recognized on the national stage as an organization that continues the work of inclusion, equity and truth-based journalism acknowledges Maynard’s decades-long commitment to expand  the community of journalists who aspire to live up to the words and aspirations of Bob Maynard and the founders.

It was a milestone moment for Maynard. In my remarks as the award presenter, I lauded Martin and Eveyln’s stewardship, vision, leadership, adaptability and humanity as they help carry forward Maynard’s mission with urgency and purpose. 

As board chair, I am very appreciative of the recognition because it champions the Institute’s persistent work. I share congratulations with the staff and board, too, because the award acknowledges your dedication.

Thank you to the Newhouse School of Public Communications for the Lorraine Branham Award, presented at a fantastic event where NBC News’ Lester Holt was among the six honorees, as the recipient of the Fred Dressler Leadership Award.”

On legacy: Evelyn Hsu

On accepting the Lorraine Branham Award, Co-Executive Director Evelyn Hsu recalled founders Bob and Nancy Maynard, and Bob’s daughter and Institute President Dori J. Maynard.

“We stand on the shoulders of our founders, including Bob Maynard and Nancy Hicks Maynard,” Hsu said. “And we carry deep appreciation for the leadership of our former president, Dori Maynard, who left us far too soon just over a decade ago. I know Dori would have been proud to see the Institute receive an award named for Lorraine Branham, a Maynard graduate whose life and work reflected the power of this legacy.”

Hsu expounded on carrying forward the legacy of the founders, and the generational mantle carried forward by Maynard Institute faculty, staff, fellows and trainees.

“That work has never belonged to one person or one generation. It has been carried by mentors, trainers, editors, reporters, board members, funders and alumni who kept showing up because they believed journalism matters — and because they believed who gets to shape journalism matters, too.”

On the future of belonging: Martin G. Reynolds

Co-Executive Director Martin G. Reynolds spoke on past and future visions of belonging in news.

“Nearly 50 years ago, the founders of the Institute believed something simple and profound: the beacons of news in this country should reflect the full diversity of the nation. That mission has always mattered. But it meets this moment with particular urgency,” Marting G. Reynolds said, referencing recent attacks on diversity not only as a practice, but as an ideal and as a reality in America.

“…this honor feels like more than recognition. It is a deeply appreciated act of affirmation for our board, our staff, and especially our graduates, who remain the most powerful reflection of our legacy. Because this work has never been only about who is represented inside newsrooms. It is also about whether the people in our communities are seen fully, heard clearly, and understood for who they are.”

Reynolds hit on the most desired outcome of representation in news: true belonging and investment in communities, and investment in the belonging of each individual within the collective.

“Our hope is that our shared humanity will prevail — and that corrosive attempts to divide us will be met by stories that reveal the beauty, complexity and authenticity of the person beside you.

They do belong. And you belong. Because we belong.”