Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now selected for new reporting partnership
There's always an experiment going on in American journalism today, with its very existence seemingly up for grabs. This time, the Kitsap Sun is included.
Earlier this week I found out that we'll be part of a new program called the Murrow Fellowship. Named for the Washington State University alum and legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, the fellowship will place eight journalists at newsrooms across the state, in broadcast, digital and print outlets, as part of a legislative initiative to bolster local news coverage at a time when its needed more than ever. And we'll be one of them.
We're partnering with a newer digital newsroom just down the road, Gig Harbor Now, a nonprofit founded in January 2021 and now led by Vince Dice, a former editor in the Kitsap Sun's newsroom. Vince and I crafted a joint proposal to the Murrow Fellowship, and it was selected from a field of about 40 applicants, according to the program's organizers. Our fellow, who we'll be able to announce in coming weeks with an anticipated start date of April 1, will be focused on issues that we've seen reader interest in and the need for deeper reporting on: the nexus of how issues of addiction, mental health and health care are being felt (and what they cost) across the West Sound community of Kitsap County and Gig Harbor.
The Murrow Fellow will be based in our newsroom in Bremerton, and work collaboratively for the Sun and Gig Harbor Now, doing stories that either apply regionally or unite an issue of interest for each community. Some stories may originate closer to our home base, others in GHN's home turf in Pierce County. The reporter will actually be employed by Washington State University during the two years with us, officially through WSU's Murrow College of Communications, though will answer editorially to the two local news organizations.
That editorial independence also applies to the program's origins in Olympia. Though the state Legislature created the program in 2023 and funded it with $2.3 million, there is no formal channel of control to any lawmakers, other than reporting back on the program's anticipated success. I hope we are a part of that, and this proves a path to bring back more local reporting to communities like ours that sorely need more feet on the street to report the news.
“We view (the) program as a small but critical part of maintaining the state’s news infrastructure until the financial precarity of news organizations subsides,” Ben Shors, Murrow chair of Journalism and Media Production, said in a news release. “Over the past eight months, we have spoken to dozens of news organizations, journalists, and community leaders, and the responses have been sobering. From urban centers to rural communities, the need for reliable local information is clear.”
Other Murrow Fellows were placed at the Tacoma News Tribune, the Chinook Observer in Longview, the Tri-City Herald, the Vancouver Columbian and Longview Daily News (joint proposal), Wenatchee World and Northwest Daily News (joint proposal), The Yakima Herald-Republic and El Sol de Yakima (joint proposal), Spokane Public Radio and The Spokesman-Review (joint proposal), and from broadcasters KHQ (Spokane) and KNDU (Tri-Cities/Yakima). If you want to read the full list of proposals, click here.
Right about a year ago I mentioned this idea in a column, just as the proposal initiated by Sen. Karen Kaiser, D-Des Moines and a former journalist herself, was making its way through the budgeting process. I wrote about my belief that such spending helps now -- more local reporters equals more local stories -- and into the future -- everything we can do to keep training the next generation of journalists is important, knowing how precarious our situation -- and your local news -- may be. Now that the pleasant shock of being selected for a Murrow Fellowship is settling in, I've got a thought that I admit I don't say often but now feel strongly about: Go Cougs.
David Nelson has been editor of the Kitsap Sun since 2009. Contact him at david.nelson@kitsapsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Kitsap Sun and Gig Harbor Now selected for Murrow Fellowship
