West Virginia Public Broadcasting will be part of the 2019 Report for America initiative that will allow WVPB to add a full-time multimedia reporter to its news staff, starting in June.
The position will be based in Charleston, covering southern West Virginia, with a focus on public affairs and state government.
Chuck Roberts, executive director and CEO of WVPB, said he’s eager to see a reporter dedicated to covering the coalfields and issues that matter to West Virginians.
“This collaboration with Report for America will give us a great opportunity to expand our coverage in a part of West Virginia that is often underrepresented,” Roberts said. “We will happily welcome a new journalist to our news team, which works hard every day to report in an unbiased way and tell the important stories people need to hear about our state and the Appalachian region. We are so thrilled about this opportunity.”
Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities. Launched in 2017 and donor-financed, Report for America is creating a new, sustainable system that provides Americans with the information they need to improve their communities, hold powerful institutions accountable, and rebuild trust in the media.
“We are very excited to work with Report for America again to extend our news coverage in southern West Virginia,” WVPB news director Jesse Wright said.
WVPB was part of the initial launch of RFA, partnering with the Charleston Gazette-Mail and the Lexington Herald-Leader to extend news coverage in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. The collaboration culminated in a reporting project focused on water and sewer infrastructure issues in the region called Stirring the Waters.
“Our work with RFA and GroundTruth in the past produced outstanding reporting in the underserved parts of our state,” Wright said. “I look forward to seeing what our next project accomplishes.”
How to Apply
The deadline for applications is Feb. 8, 2019.
RFA corps members typically have 3 to 6 years of experience, while some are accomplished recent graduates. More than half of the current corps members have returned to their home states.
Program information can be found at https://www.reportforamerica.org/local-innovators/.
The corps member application can be found at https://reportforamerica.submittable.com/submit/107087/report-for-america-corps-member-application
Questions about the position can be directed to WVPB news director Jesse Wright –jwright2@wvpublic.org – or to Report for America at https://www.reportforamerica.org/contact-us/.
About Report for America
To win the right to host one or more reporters, each news organization had to demonstrate that there is a civically-important gap in coverage and that they have a strong plan to deploy new reporting resources in the public interest.
Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit media organization with an established track record of training and supporting teams of emerging journalists around the world and in the U.S.