A new workshop series encourages participants from a variety of disciplines and
backgrounds to come together and learn innovative techniques for creating robust
stories about the Appalachian region.
100 Days in Appalachia, a nonprofit, national news outlet incubated at the
West Virginia UniversityReed College of Media, recently received an Andrew W. Mellon grant that will
support the workshop series and a new full-time practitioner-in-residence who will
help increase 100 Days’ presence on campus and integration into curriculum at WVU.
With 25 million people living within the Ohio River watershed and at least 5 million
depending on it for drinking water, seven newsrooms in the region joined together
to create
Good River: Stories of the Ohio,an initiative covering what is often
referred to as one of America’s most polluted waterways despite years of clean-up.
The project’s first phase began last May and ended this month with contributing journalists, nonprofit leads and community members coming together at West Virginia University’s Media Innovation Center to celebrate their work so far, which includes more than 20 multimedia pieces that cover the Ohio River’s environment, economy and culture.
Aspiring journalists looking for a pathway to newspaper ownership will get a leg
up at West Virginia University thanks to the nation’s only fellowship program designed
to maintain and strengthen local news ownership.
“Many current owners are aging and ready to retire but have no succession plans and
don’t want to sell their legacy operations to media chains,” said
Jim Iovino, director of
NewStart, a new entrepreneurial media ownership program at the
West Virginia UniversityReed College of Media which today announced a $200,000 investment from the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation that will help students ensure communities
stay informed and local democracy thrives.