Fort Worth Report And KERA Welcome Report For America Fellows

Arlington TX

08 December, 2021

7:41 PM

Description

By The FWR Staff, Fort Worth Report December 8, 2021 Fort Worth Report and KERA are welcoming two Report for America fellows to their respective newsrooms: Haley Samsel will join the Fort Worth Report on December 15 to cover environmental issues, and Kailey Broussard will join KERA as Accountability Reporter on the newly launched Government Accountability team. Report for America is a journalism organization that connects emerging reporters with news outlets that have identified critical gaps in their own coverage. Report for America commits to covering half of each journalist's salary and helps news outlets fundraise to cover an additional 25%, allowing newsrooms to acquire talent and essential coverage they otherwise might not have access to. As Report for America journalists, Samsel and Broussard were originally placed with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. However, earlier this year the president and co-founder of Report for America published an op-ed criticizing hedge funds' ownership and influence on local newspapers. As a result, hedge fund-owned McClatchy — a publishing company that owns dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — announced it will not participate in the next Report for America cycle. This meant several Report for America journalists' contracts were not renewed, including those of Samsel and Broussard. As nonprofit news organizations, KERA and the Fort Worth Report believe the more journalists on the ground in North Texas, the better off our community. That's why the two organizations are proud to add these Report for America journalists to their respective newsrooms, so that they may continue reporting on some of the most important issues facing Fort Worth and our shared North Texas community. To read the full article, click here. Fort Worth Report is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that produces factual, in-depth journalism about city and county government, schools, healthcare, business, and arts and culture in Tarrant County. Always free to read; subscribe to newsletters, read coverage or support our newsroom at fortworthreport.org.