William Allen White Community Journalism Fellowship

The William Allen White Foundation is seeking applicants for a pilot fellowship program designed to support local reporting in Kansas community newsrooms.

The Foundation will award a $30,000 grant to a selected Kansas news organization to help support a full-time reporting position for one year. The host newsroom will hire and employ the fellow as a regular full-time staff member, provide salary and benefits, and be responsible for day-to-day supervision, editing, coaching, and editorial management. The Foundation will select the host newsroom, provide funding, and evaluate the results of the pilot program. All editorial decisions will remain with the newsroom. 

Purpose of the Program

The Kansas Community Journalism Fellowship is designed to:

  • Encourage early-career journalists to begin their careers in Kansas community newsrooms
  • Strengthen reporting capacity in communities that need more local coverage
  • Help Kansas news organizations build relationships with emerging journalists
  • Test a practical model for supporting local journalism in smaller markets

The selected newsroom will help shape the first year of the program. The Foundation expects to learn from the experience of the host newsroom and the fellow, and will use that feedback to improve and expand the program in future years.

 

Community Journalism Fellowship

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Host Newsroom Eligibility

• A Kansas news organization primarily serving a county of 75,000 or fewer residents

• Producing original local journalism on a consistent basis

• Able to provide meaningful in-person supervision, editing, and mentorship

• Prepared to employ the fellow as a full-time employee with standard benefits for a period of one year.*

*The fellowship may be extended beyond the first year based on mutual agreement between the fellow and the news organization with all costs in subsequent years being the responsibility of the news organization.

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The Fellow

Applicants for the fellowship must be a recent graduate (December 2025 or later) or a graduating senior (May 2027) from the University of Kansas William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and eligible to legally work in the U.S.

Faculty and staff at KU will help promote the program to eligible students and recent graduates. The host newsroom will interview candidates and select the fellow, subject to the eligibility requirements of the program.
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Compensation and Benefits

The Foundation grant is intended to offset a portion of the fellow's compensation. Host newsrooms are expected to supplement the grant so that the fellow receives compensation that is competitive for an entry-level journalist in the newsroom's market. The fellow must be employed as a regular full-time employee and receive benefits consistent with those provided to the newsroom's existing full-time staff.

Host newsrooms are also expected to provide:

• A relocation stipend of $2,500 to help with moving expenses, temporary housing, or pre-hire travel
• A completion bonus of $2,500, payable after successful completion of the 12-month fellowship
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Professional Development

The Foundation will also provide a professional mentor to help coach and guide the fellow during their year in the newsroom. Also, it will cover the expenses for the fellow to attend a professional development workshop during the Fellowship.
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Selection and Hiring Timeline

  • Applications for the news organization due: October 15, 2026 
  • Host newsroom selected: by November 1, 2026, by the Foundation's board of trustees
  • Candidate promotion and interviews: following selection, KU faculty and staff will help promote the opportunity; the host newsroom will interview and select the fellow
  • Target hiring completion: March 1, 2027, consistent with the college recruiting cycle

If hiring is not complete by March 1, 2027, the Foundation will review the recruiting progress and will retain the right to transfer the grant to an alternate newsroom.

What the Application Asks

The application requests information on:

  • The organization's background, ownership, staffing, and coverage area
  • The proposed reporting role.
  • The supervision, editing, and mentorship plan
  • The proposed compensation and benefits plan
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Questions?

Contact Tom Slaughter at tomeslaughter@gmail.com or 908-723-4937