Henrico Citizen selected as one of 64 new Report for America host newsrooms

The Henrico Citizen has been selected as one of 216 Report for America host newsrooms in the United States, Puerto Rico and Guam in 2021, RFA officials announced Dec. 8. The Citizen was one of just 64 new organizations – and the only one from Virginia – selected to join the program in 2021.

Report for America, which is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, is a two-year program (with an option for three) that provides full-time reporters to its selected partners and pays as much as half their salaries. It also provides ongoing training and mentorship by leading journalists, peer networking, and memberships to select professional organizations.

In 2021, it will place more than 300 journalists with its member organizations, including the Citizen.

The new hire will be the Citizen’s first full-time employee since its inception in 2001 whose sole focus is reporting. The employee will begin next June and will be tasked with examining education in Henrico County through the lenses of equity, race, geography and economy, among others.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled and humbled by this news,” Citizen Publisher Tom Lappas said. “It will fundamentally change the way we are able to cover arguably the most important and relevant issue in Henrico County. Education touches nearly every aspect of our community, and our RFA reporter will tell this story proactively, in ways we previously haven’t been able to tell it.

“To be selected from among many deserving applications nationwide and beyond is an exciting honor – and a confirmation that we're on the right track as we continue doing critically important work in this county."

The Citizen and other new additions to the RFA program were selected primarily because of the ways in which they defined the most compelling gaps in coverage and plans to deploy corps members well, according to RFA officials.

“With the local news system shrinking, it’s important that we both put more and more reporters in the field—and that we help newsrooms that are working toward becoming more sustainable, and more grounded in the community,” said Steve Waldman, president and co-founder of Report for America. “It’s particularly gratifying that newsrooms have, en masse, decided that they want to do better coverage of communities of color.”

Newsrooms selected include daily and weekly newspapers, digital-only news outlets, radio and television stations.

RFA is now accepting applications for reporters through Jan. 31. Corps members will be selected from a competitive, national group. Last year, the organization received more than 1,800 applications. Those hired become employees of their respective newsrooms and will begin their employment June 1.

“Report for America provides a unique opportunity for journalists to really sink their teeth into local, issue-oriented reporting that is missing from so many newsrooms today,” said Norman Parish, recruitment director, Report for America. “Beyond talented reporters and photojournalists, we are looking for individuals who see journalism as a public service and want to make a difference within their communities.”

To help connect corps members to the community, they are required to do a service project, which often includes engaging middle or high school students in journalism related activities.

Report for America, which was launched by The GroundTruth Project in the fall of 2017, aims to place 1,000 journalists into local newsrooms by 2024. It is supported in its efforts by a number of philanthropic leaders, including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Facebook Journalism Project, Natasha and Dirk Ziff, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, the Lumina Foundation, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Heising-Simons Foundation, the Henry L. Kimelman Foundation, the Tow Foundation, and the Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation.

“There is a growing awareness that the crisis in local journalism has everything to do with the crisis in our democracy; but we believe trusted, local journalism breaks down barriers and brings people together. Supporting local news through Report for America is part of the way forward, a way to restore civic engagement and respectful dialogue across the divides in our country,” said Charles Sennott, GroundTruth chief executive officer and co-founder of Report for America. “We can’t wait to work with our newsroom partners and our reporting corps to restore journalism from the ground up.”

To learn more about Report for America and its mission to strengthen communities and democracy through local journalism that is truthful, fearless, fair and smart, visit http://www.reportforamerica.org.

The Citizen's selection is the third major national endorsement it has received this year. In May, the publication was one of three Virginia newsrooms selected to receive a grant from the Facebook Local Journalism Project's COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund Grant Program, and in June it received funds from the Google News Initiative’s Journalism Emergency Relief Fund.