Report for America announced Tuesday the placement of some 300 journalists for its 2021 reporting corps. The cohort, which includes a number of corps members returning for a second or third year, will join the staffs of more than 200 local news organizations across 49 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
Among those named is Shaun Robinson, who will focus on issues of special interest to VTDigger’s audience in the northwestern Vermont counties of Franklin, Grand Isle and Chittenden.
These reporting positions come at a critical moment during which many local newsrooms are closing, the national organization said, leaving a vacuum of trusted, accurate information that is being filled by partisan news sites and online disinformation that threaten our democracy.
“The crisis in our democracy, disinformation and polarization, is in many ways a result of the collapse of local news,” said Steven Waldman, co-founder and president of Report for America. “We have a unique opportunity to reverse this decline by filling newsrooms with talented
journalists who not only view journalism as a public service, but who can make trusted connections with the communities they serve.”
Report for America is a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. It is an initiative of the GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit journalism organization.
Robinson, who will join VTDigger June 1, has been working as a Massachusetts Statehouse correspondent for the Cape Cod Times and earlier produced coverage of Newton, Massachusetts, for the Boston Globe. He has interned at GBH News and KCW Today, a London-based newspaper.
He also designed and completed a six-month co-op program at the Patriot Ledger, a daily newspaper in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he covered hundreds of stories, from a subway derailment to an 84-day sanitation workers’ strike.
Robinson majored in journalism with a minor in political science at Boston University, where he was editor-in-chief of the Daily Free Press when it won the 2019 New England College Newspaper of the Year Award. He will join reporter Ellie French as the second member on the VTDigger staff to have held the top position at the Daily Free Press.
Robinson will also be VTDigger’s second Report for America corps member, joining southern Vermont reporter Emma Cotton, who continues in that role.
Among those journalists also selected for Report for America was current VTDigger intern James Finn, a Middlebury College graduate who will be moving to Louisiana.
Finn will join the Baton Rouge Advocate, where he will provide coverage of local politics, development and criminal justice in the state’s Florida Parishes — Livingston, Tangipahoa and St. Helena. According to Report for America, that area has faced significant flooding damage in past years and will need local news coverage as climate change continues to threaten in the years ahead.
Also in Vermont, Alexa “Lexi” Krupp will take a position with Vermont Public Radio to report on economic issues in the Northeast Kingdom. In addition, two journalists were named to roles at the Valley News, a VTDigger partner that provides coverage of Vermont and New Hampshire. Alejandra Driehaus will be a general assignment photographer and Claire Potter will focus on the environment and climate change in the Upper Valley.
Report for America covers half the salary of journalists who are selected, with the news organization and local fundraising initiatives covering the rest. The appointment is for one year but can be extended.
As a requirement of participation in Report for America, VTDigger must raise a minimum of $10,000 from readers to fund Shaun’s position. Will you help fuel Northwestern Vermont reporting by becoming a member, or making an additional gift today? Right now, during the last days of our Spring Drive, your gift will be matched and we will send a brand-new book to a Vermont child. Support Northwestern Vermont reporting.