As newsroom layoffs continue to make headlines across the industry, Report for America has announced today that it will place more than 60 reporters and photojournalists in new positions at local newsrooms across the country this summer, including at the WFIU/WTIU newsroom.
Aubrey Wright will join WFIU/WTIU News as a multimedia journalist covering equity in higher education. She is a recent graduate of Ohio State University, where she earned a B.A. in journalism and served as managing editor for content at The Lantern. In college, Wright’s focus as an editor included Ohio State’s biggest issues, including Columbus police presence on campus, criminal court cases, and a decades-long sexual abuse scandal. Prior to joining WFIU/WTIU she worked alongside The Columbus Dispatch’s metro desk and freelanced for The Columbus Jewish News to produce daily stories, breaking news, and enterprise projects.
Wright along with other new Report for America corps members join hundreds more who will continue reporting on undercovered communities and topics for their second or third years in the national service program. Report for America has now matched more than 600 journalists with local newspapers, public radio stations, digital platforms, and television outlets since its launch in 2017.
“We are honored to receive support from Report for America to expand our local news coverage,” said WFIU/WTIU News bureau chief Sara Wittmeyer. “This position will allow us to report on the cost of higher education, the enrollment cliff, the skills gap, workforce training, and more.”
The corps members will begin their new assignments in July, arriving in newsrooms like the recently launched Baltimore Banner, which is bringing back desperately needed coverage following cuts by hedge fund ownership at the city’s legacy newspaper; the Uvalde Leader-News, serving a Texas community still reeling from a devastating school shooting; Metro Puerto Rico, which looks to deepen its health reporting as the island faces an aging population and struggles to recover from recent hurricanes; and the People-Sentinel in Barnwell, S.C., which will open a bureau in a nearby county that no one’s covered in 10 years.
To learn more about Report for America and its efforts to strengthen communities through public service journalism, visit its website.