Breaking News…the Best News Site on the Planet Wants You To Work for Them
Breaking News…the Best News Site on the Planet Wants You To Work for Them
ProPublica broke the Clarence Thomas corruption story, among others
If you’re a young writer looking to break into the news field, and you happen to be a person of color, ProPublica has set up a program to help launch your career.
It’s called the Emerging Reporters program. The description of the program below is taken directly from their website. Most news sites don’t want writers like me quoting huge blocks of text, but in this case, I’m sure they won’t mind.
From ProPublica’s website (each job heading is also a link to the job):
Emerging Reporters
People of color are underrepresented in our nation’s newsrooms. The most recent survey by the American Society of News Editors suggests that people of color make up a quarter of U.S. newsroom employees. Often, those numbers are even smaller in newsrooms focused on investigative reporting.
ProPublica has a vested interest in developing more journalists from diverse backgrounds, particularly those who are economically disadvantaged. We consider it crucial to the future of our industry and to our own ability to fulfill our mission, which is to expose abuses of power and produce journalism that provokes change. Without the voices and points of view of more journalists of color, there is every reason to believe that important stories are being overlooked. Barriers that keep aspiring journalists of color from entering the field include financial constraints and lack of access to mentors and training. The Emerging Reporters Program is aimed at lowering those barriers.
Who is eligible for this program?
The Emerging Reporters Program is specifically designed for talented aspiring journalists who find investigative journalism inaccessible for financial reasons. All students who will be undergraduate juniors or seniors in college this academic year are eligible to apply, and students from groups that are traditionally underrepresented in journalism, including people of color, are especially encouraged to do so. Participants are expected to take a full course load during the 2024-25 school year. Applicants must also demonstrate financial need.
The Emerging Reporters Program is only open to students who are eligible to file U.S. taxes and are able to provide a completed W-9 form, including U.S. citizens or U.S. residents. The W-9 form requires that each participant provide a valid Social Security number or individual taxpayer identification number. We will not make any exceptions to this rule.
When does the program typically run?
This year’s program will run from late September to June, during which time mentors and program participants will be in contact by phone and email. Students will receive two stipends of $4,500 each, one at the beginning of the program and one at its midway point.
How do the mentorships work? Do I get to choose my mentor or is one assigned to me?
The program director will take into account the interests expressed in your application to match you with one of our great journalists for the year.
Do students need to pay for their own expenses for the conference?
No! Accommodations and other expenses for the conference will be covered by ProPublica. The dates of the conferences are to be determined.
If I have any questions that weren’t answered here, whom do I contact?
Email Assistant Managing Editor, Talia Buford at talent@propublica.org with any additional questions.
No phone calls, please.
D.C. Reporter
ProPublica is seeking to hire three experienced investigative reporters to cover politics, power and the inner workings of the federal government in Washington.
If you’re a number cruncher or IT type, there are couple job openings for you, too:
Data Editor
We're looking for a data editor who can set and execute an ambitious vision for the use of data analysis in the ProPublica newsroom. Come work with us and help us continue to innovate and elevate our use of data to do compelling, impactful journalism.
IT Support Specialist
We are searching for an enterprise technology support specialist to be at the forefront of providing technical support for colleagues working across our organization. Join our team!
Who is ProPublica?
So who are these guys? Few outside of the close-knit journalist community have been paying much attention as ProPublica has quietly turned into an investigative juggernaut over the last 20 years or so.
The news outlet was started by a rich couple, Marion and Herb Sandler, who grew a small savings and loan operation in Oakland, California into a very, very large operation called Golden West Financial Corporation. How large? Big enough to sell to Wachovia for $25 billion. This laced their pockets with a $2.4 billion profit that they didn’t really need. I mean, who does?
So, unlike other billionaires, instead of piling up more cash, they looked for ways to give it all away. They set up a foundation, called, of course, The Sandler Foundation, because even progressive billionaires have egos. They dumped $1.4 billion into it, which quickly made it one of the top 30 philanthropic organizations in the nation.
They also supported such charities as the American Asthma Foundation and the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL). Wikipedia, which knows these things, says CRL “is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization fighting predatory mortgage lending, payday loans, and other products that prey on consumers.”
According to the New York Times, the Sandlers also helped finance Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (Acorn), which has consistently been a target of the right, which in turn means they’re good at what they do.
Herb Sandler has been quoted as saying that the motive for all this charity funding “starts with outrage. You go a little crazy when power takes advantage of those without power.”
But their biggest adventure happened when they met up with a journalist named Paul Steiger, the managing editor of the Wall Street Journal, and said, “Paul? We’d like to fire up an investigative news outlet because we’ve got some serious outrage going and we need to expose corruption and the abuse of power.”
They didn’t say it like that. That’s my summary. But that’s the essence of it.
Then they said, “We’ll give you $30 million to get it going.”
To a print journalist, that’s more gold than they’ll see in thirty lifetimes, much less one, so Steiger jumped on top of that faster than a Fox News reporter can jump into a pile of lies.
Steiger wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill managing editor. He had already won 16 Pulitzer prizes. Mainstream media has its obvious issues, but Pulitzers usually go to deserving journalists who report on things like, well, Supreme Court justices who fly around on jets provided by partisan donors.
Here’s a tip for the Pulitzer folks: The reporters for the ProPublica story about Thomas are Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski.
ProPublica has developed a long record of outstanding investigative journalism since those early days. Let’s fast forward to today. Here are a just a few of the amazing stories ProPublica has done in just the last few months that you’ve never heard of:
The Powerful Forces Keeping High Interest Title Lending Alive in Georgia
In February, Georgia lawmaker Josh Bonner introduced a bill that he hoped would fix a thorny problem that entangles…
The Landlord, the Tenant and a House Fire in Milwaukee
Near Milwaukee, the lives of landlord Todd Brunner and tenant Angelica Belen intersect in a house that catches fire…
Juvenile Injustice, Tennessee
After a Nashville Public Radio and ProPublica investigation, a Tennessee judge said she was retiring.
The Secret IRS Files
A massive trove of tax information obtained by ProPublica, covering thousands of America's wealthiest individuals….
Cybersecurity Researcher Discovers Yet Another Flaw in Georgia’s Voter Cancellation Portal
The flaw would have allowed anyone to submit a voter registration cancellation request for any Georgian using their name, date of birth and county of residence — information that is easily discoverable online.
The list goes on and on and on because injustices in America are legion.
Not only is ProPublica the best investigative news outlet in America, but they also use a Creative Commons license that allows anyone to reproduce their stories in full. They even have a cool name for it: “Steal Our Stories.”
Much of ProPublica’s local reporting is done in concert with local news outlets. For example, the story of high-interest lending in Georgia was a cooperative effort with The Current, a news organization based in coastal Georgia.
This support from what is now a powerful force in American journalism helps local news journals stay afloat and do what American journalism is supposed to do: mind the store. Somebody needs to keep an eye on local politicians who keep their own eyes on graft.
Even better, they’re looking for you. If you’re a young, aspiring writer, ProPublica is constantly on the lookout for stringers, editors, and reporters. You don’t need to scan their website every week for opportunities. Just go here and sign up for their Local Reporting Network newsletter at the bottom of the page:
If I sound like I must be affiliated with ProPublica, I’m not. Just a devoted reader and supporter. I even send a little money their way every year, because the Sandlers are no longer with us. You should, too, if you can.
It’s a shame that we live in a country where we need rich fair-minded people like the Sandlers to counter the vast libertarian onslaught of corporate capitalism, but here we are.
Think for a minute about where we’d be without them. Then, subscribe to ProPublica’s newsletters so that you know there are people out there trying to keep us all sane.