FAQs for Newsrooms

To meet the criteria for acceptance into Report for America, all of these questions should be answered yes. 

• Will the new position/beat you’re proposing fill an important need? (Are there under-covered topics, communities or geographic areas?)
• Has your newsroom been publishing for at least one year?
• Do you provide high quality editing?
• Do you pay a living wage, according to the MIT living wage calculator?
• Do you agree to fundraise to help you pay your portion of the corps member’s salary? (Our Local Sustainability Team will provide training and resources to help you succeed.)

Any news organization that is committed to providing objective, civically important local journalism. That could include public radio and TV stations, newspapers, digital sites, commercial radio and TV stations, wire services, or schools providing direct journalism to communities. The organization can be nonprofit or for-profit.

The window to apply for consideration as a host newsroom opens September 14, 2026, and the deadline to apply is October 19, 2026. Report for America reviewers will assess newsroom applications through November and schedule virtual interviews via Zoom for finalists in December. We’ll announce winning host newsrooms on January 19, 2027, and open the corps member application cycle for journalists to apply for the positions. Host newsrooms will select their corps member from a slate of candidates we provide, and the journalist will start in your newsroom on the second Monday in July 2027.

We believe that successful news organizations have to build stronger community support, whether it’s through membership, subscriptions, events and/or philanthropy, including individual and institutional donations. For that reason, we require news organizations to involve the community to support their Report for America corps member.

It’s whatever the newsroom normally pays journalists of comparable experience, though it must be a living wage in that area, according to the MIT living wage calculator, at the time the job offer is extended.

Report for America provides a salary grant covering 50% of the salary the first year, with a cap of $27,500 for early-career reporters (less than 6 years’ experience) and $30,000 for reporters with 6 or more years’ experience. We pay 33% of the salary the second year, and 20% the third year, and the same caps apply. 

The news organization is responsible for covering the rest of the salary — the “local share.” We require that you fundraise and encourage you to raise at least half of your share from local donors. We have a dedicated local news sustainability team to help you with that.

No, but you do need to have a solid plan for how you’re going to raise the money, and a firm commitment to doing it.

No. We provide a grant for a portion of the corps member’s base salary. You pay for benefits. Newsrooms are required to offer the same benefits to corps members as they provide to other full-time staff.

Yes. If your newsroom doesn’t offer health insurance, we require that you pay your corps member a $3,000 stipend after taxes so they can buy their own health insurance. The stipend can be paid out monthly or annually to corps members, within 30 days of their start date.

We help our newsroom partners in many ways: grant writing, creating personalized annual fundraising campaign materials, identifying potential donors, brainstorming underwriting opportunities, providing moral support, and designing audience engagement efforts. We’re here to help. These services are available to you for free because of your partnership with Report for America. 

You make the final selection. Report for America will screen the large pool of talented applicants and choose three to five candidates who meet your newsroom’s specific criteria to present to you. The corps member works for you; they’re not an employee of Report for America.

Yes, though we don’t allow more than three in any newsroom at a time. You have to make the case that you’ll use the Report for America corps members well and that you can provide the financial match. Current host newsrooms that want more corps members have to be in good standing with our program. 

Corps members range from recently graduated (from college or graduate school) to having many years of journalism experience. The median age of current corps members is 26. If you’re interested in an experienced journalist for your position, let us know on your newsroom application. We can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to find you an entire slate of highly experienced applicants, but we work hard to match the news organization and the beat with journalists whose experience and skills will allow them to succeed from Day One. Report for America offers a higher cap on its salary contributions — $30,000 rather than $27,500 — for corps members with 6 or more years of experience.

As an employee of the newsroom, the reporter would be covered exclusively by the libel insurance of the local news organization.

No. You know your community far better than we do. We leave it to the host organizations to decide what is most needed in the community. 

They are employees of the local news organization. They receive your benefits, operate under your standards, are covered by your libel insurance policy, and are edited and managed by you.

We ask each corps member to make an initial commitment of two years to the host newsroom and the program. We also offer an optional third year for interested newsrooms and corps members.

No. We’re aware that advocacy journalism organizations can do great work. But our goal is to promote straight up, nitty-gritty local reporting.

As an employee of the newsroom, the reporter would be covered exclusively by the libel insurance of the local news organization. Report for America requires all newsrooms to carry media liability insurance, and we can point you to resources to help find insurance if needed.

Yes. If the corps member is performing poorly, you can terminate them for cause (though we ask for a heads up about both emerging problems and your decision). The news organization will have to pay back the unspent part of the subsidy we have provided.

If a first-year corps member leaves, we’ll do our best to match the newsroom with a replacement, depending on how things went with the original corps member. We’ll pay 33% of the salary of the replacement. If a second- or third-year corps member leaves, the newsroom won’t get a replacement, but can apply to us for a new beat the following summer/fall.

Report for America is funded by foundations and individuals. There are no partisan or ideological strings attached. All organizations and individuals that fund Report for America understand that we support non-partisan, non-ideological local reporting. Local funders also need to abide by the same guidelines. Of course, funders have various reasons for wanting to support journalism but they all commit to our guidelines, which state that the donations will not affect coverage.