The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation is proud to join The New York Times in welcoming its next class of the Local Investigations Fellowship.
The program, which is led by Dean Baquet, a former executive editor of The New York Times, gives journalists the opportunity to produce signature investigative work focused on the state or region they’re reporting from. Their reporting will be published by The Times and made available free for co-publication by local newsrooms.
A grant from the Driehaus Foundation's Investigative Journalism program will support an Illinois-based fellowship position in 2024-25 and 2025-26. The new fellows also hail from California, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
Meet this year's Local Investigations Fellows
"The experience of working on investigative stories with one of the world's top newsrooms is a special opportunity for the Local Investigations Fellows and an investment in the future of local news,” said Anne Lazar, executive director of the Driehaus Foundation. “We are delighted to join The Times to support the professional growth of journalists working in Chicago and Illinois newsrooms, and bring their reporting to national audiences."
The fellowship was introduced to help develop the next generation of reporters to produce accountability journalism at the local level. In addition to producing signature investigative work, fellows will receive frequent training opportunities to learn investigative reporting techniques, make trips to our New York offices and attend conferences for additional training and mentorship. Times editors will also visit fellows in their reporting regions.
“It has been so rewarding to help reporters turn their ideas into stories, and to produce work that has a huge local impact,” said Baquet. “It has also been exciting to work closely with newsrooms across the country, to see how many of them are doing great coverage sometimes against the odds.”
- The New York Times: Introducing the 2024-25 Local Investigations Fellows
- Illinois Answers Project: Illinois Answers Reporters Join Prestigious Investigations Fellowship
