Community News Fellowships: Purpose and Impact

Why Community News Fellowships?

The United States has lost 81% of its local journalists since 2002, according to the 2026 Local Journalist Index. The nation has only 7.8 local journalists per 100,000 residents, and most counties are even further below that average. Many communities across the country today have no local health or education coverage, and very little coverage of other essential local matters. The consequences are measurable and dire.

Reversing this decline is in our power. We can build pathways for new journalists to enter the field and fill gaps where coverage has disappeared. Publicly funded community news fellowships, as we propose here, can do exactly that and serve multiple public policy goals at once:

• • Immediately grow the number of local journalists and the amount of community coverage
  • Deliver economic support for local news providers via subsidized labor and revenue-raising assistance
  • Build skills and experience for local journalists, including those early in their careers
  • Lead to permanent jobs via a well-tailored pathway toward journalist retention after the end of the fellowship

Rebuild Local News’ model legislation – which is informed by and builds on the success of existing programs – shows how policymakers can establish state fellowships or journalist job corps in statute, administered by a qualified host entity such as a university or an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Fellows receive training, mentorship, and ongoing support throughout fellowship terms of at least two years. News providers apply to host fellows and are selected based on coverage needs and their demonstrated readiness to supervise and support an additional journalist, including fellows who may be early in their careers. The program supplies fundraising support to help convert temporary placements into full-time jobs.

Our model policy is titled the Community News Fellowships Act, but adopting states may prefer an alternate title, such as the Community News Workforce Program. The “workforce” framing may suit policymakers and advocates who want to emphasize the economic development and community-focused elements of our policy, while “fellowships” language may fit better where the program is anchored in a university and primarily focused on journalist skill-building. The three existing state programs are hosted at universities and termed fellowships, while the nonprofit Report for America describes participating journalists as corps members. For simplicity and because it matches existing state programs, we use the term “fellowships” throughout this discussion.

Community news fellowships offer unique opportunities for public-private partnerships to address coverage gaps. Our model law proposes funding the program through a continuing fund that may accept both public and private money and carry balances forward across fiscal years. This structure allows the program to sustain overlapping two-year cohorts, plan recruitment cycles in advance, and combine state appropriations with philanthropic support. For example, the UC Berkeley fellowship recently announced they will provide health coverage fellowships with support from the California Health Care Foundation. In Washington State, Microsoft announced they will fund fellowship positions in counties with data centers.

Community news fellowships are a strong complement to other local news policies. A fellowship adds reporting capacity where it’s lacking and builds the pipeline of new journalists. It pairs especially well with a local journalist employment credit that helps news providers retain longer-term staff. An employment credit program’s new hire incentive (like the kind proposed in Rebuild Local News’ model employment credit) can smooth the transition of the fellowship position into a permanent job.

Fellowships are a proven and effective tool to expand community news coverage

Hundreds of U.S. communities have already benefited from fellowship programs. Our approach draws on existing public programs in California, Washington, and New Mexico, and on the nonprofit Report for America, the national service corps program that pioneered the model.

These programs are showing the framework can work at scale.

California has placed 110 fellows across four cohorts in more than 100 news outlets. Washington has sustained 8 to 16 fellows per cycle across roughly 22 news organizations. New Mexico has been running the program since 2019, placing 5 to 7 fellows plus interns annually across 28 outlets, including rural and nonprofit outlets that typically cannot afford staff positions. In its most recent corps year, Report for America placed 181 corps members in 152 news organizations across the country. Since its inception, RFA has fielded 759 reporters, who have produced 100,000 stories, and helped 429 news organizations to raise $60 million from local giving.

Across the three state programs, fellows have produced more than 13,000 stories while achieving career retention rates (more than 80% stay in journalism one year post-fellowship) that exceed what journalism education alone typically achieves. Report for America shows further evidence of success, with 87% of graduates staying in journalism and 55% hired by their placement news organization. Outcome tracking in California finds that 92% of news providers with California Local News Fellowship fellows report stronger community relationships and 80% say their coverage of underserved communities improved.

From our research on the experiences of these programs, we know more about what works and what challenges are likely to confront a new program. This model law and implementation guide build on those lessons. With careful design and implementation, community news fellowships give states a tested, adaptable tool to restore essential local coverage and the journalism workforce behind it.

Core Policy Elements

This model community news fellowships legislation is meant to establish a durable foundation for the program while preserving flexibility for program administrators to meet local needs. Core elements include:

• • At least two-year fellowship terms. The model requires fellowships to last for at least 24 months. Our research found that two years can better allow time to build fellows’ skills, grow an audience for fellows’ work, and secure funding to continue the position post-fellowship. Extending the fellowship beyond that time is left open, as some programs allow an optional third year.
  • Fellow training and mentorship. The model requires structured training, onboarding, peer cohorts, and coaches independent of the host news organization in order to accelerate the skill-building of fellows to contribute high-quality community coverage.
  • Editorial independence. The model disallows state officials and program administrators from exercising editorial control over fellows and host news outlets, while allowing content-neutral standards and targeted fellow placement to address priority coverage needs.
  • Dedicated, multi-year funding. The model law creates a fellowship program account that can maintain balances over multiple fiscal years without reverting back to the state’s general fund. While this likely requires greater advocacy effort for initial passage, it is highly preferable over an annual earmark that must be re-won each session.
  • Flexible administrator selection. The model establishes an RFP for administering the program that is open to public colleges/universities and qualified nonprofits. This section may be omitted where a state already has an administrator in mind.
  • Optional but strongly suggested: Host news organization cost-matching and fundraising support. Matching funds provided by the host news organization can increase the likelihood that fellows are hired into a post-fellowship position. Match levels are unspecified in the model law and may be best left to the politics of each state. Ideally the match will phase in from a lower first-year share to a higher second-year share and can be adjusted or waived for the smallest organizations. Where a match is required, the program must offer technical support in developing local fundraising capacity by the news outlet. Without it, many news outlets are unlikely to be able to host a fellow, let alone permanently hire one after a placement ends.
  • Private contributions. The model allows additional funding from private sources to expand the program. These may include private gifts, grants, and in-kind contributions, and they may be directed to a specific beat or coverage area.
  • Where the bill preserves flexibility. The language does not determine policies on diversity targets in reporting, funding non-reporter (e.g., editor) roles, cross-market salary-setting, and employment structure. These may be tailored by individual states or left to the implementing administrator.