Michigan

Traverse City Record-Eagle

The Traverse City Record-Eagle is northern Michigan's largest news outlet, operating print and digital publications, including a daily print edition, a quarterly magazine and two podcasts. The Record-Eagle has a strong history of strong watchdog reporting complemented by artful narrative writing. Our newsroom is situated in downtown Traverse City, but serves a five-county core coverage area as well as broad, growing sections of news desert in northern Michigan.  

The Hastings Banner

The Hastings Banner, which has been in existence in south central Michigan since 1856, is a locally owned, quintessential family operation. The owner, with the help of his children, runs nine weeklies, specialty publications and commercial printing. His grandchildren help to maintain the property and produce Facebook videos. A small but seasoned news staff produce exclusive, comprehensive print and online coverage of Barry County, which has a population of about 62,000.

Traverse City Record-Eagle

The Traverse City Record-Eagle is northern Michigan's largest news outlet, operating print and digital publications, including a daily print edition, a quarterly magazine and two podcasts. The Record-Eagle has a strong history of strong watchdog reporting complemented by artful narrative writing. Our newsroom is situated in downtown Traverse City, but serves a five-county core coverage area as well as broad, growing sections of news desert in northern Michigan.  

Luca Powell

Luca Powell is an investigative data journalist reporting for the Traverse City Record-Eagle. Luca has been working in New York City throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, reporting on the inequities impacting patients living with such co-morbidities as sickle cell disease. His coverage of the sacrifices of Filipino frontline nurses was featured on the cover of the New York Times’ metro section in January 2021. Most recently, Luca’s work on police misconduct was featured at WNYC and in The Intercept, where he exposed loopholes in New York’s decertification system, which allowed for problem officers to be rehired in new jobs. He is a 2020 Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar and a graduate of CUNY’s Newmark Graduate School of Journalism.

Kate Stockrahm

Kate Stockrahm reports on local nonprofits and businesses for Flint Beat, a digital publication that’s focused on government accountability, solutions journalism and filling news gaps for the community of Flint, Michigan. Stockrahm holds a bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in Latin from the University of Michigan, and began her career as an event manager in Washington, D.C. before moving to New York City to earn her degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. There, she developed skills in audio and visual storytelling while covering everything from divisive police union endorsements and failing museum diversity initiatives to COVID-19’s impact on local comedy club culture and the future of nuclear fusion as an energy source. Originally hailing from Michigan, Stockrahm says that the only two people more excited about her return to the Great Lakes State are her mom and dad.

Sierra Clark

Sierra Clark reports for the Traverse City Record-Eagle in Michigan. Clark is Kichi-wiiwedoong Anishinaabe Odawa, and covers Indigenous stories in her ancestral lands in northern Michigan. She holds a bachelor's degree in freshwater science and sustainability from Western Michigan University, and has worked as a water quality analyst for conservation associations. In June 2020, she began a fellowship with the Mishigamiing Journalism Project, a partnership between the Record-Eagle and Indigenizing the News, a digital news organization devoted to Native American and Indigenous cultures, issues and histories. Through this fellowship, Clark developed relationships with several newsrooms, including NPR, and brought Indigenous representation to their stories. As co-editor of Indigenizing the News, she hopes to continue uplifting voices in her community by doing investigative reporting on contemporary and historical issues regarding the Anishinaabek in her state.

Benjamin Simon

Benjamin Simon is a general assignment reporter focusing on Barry County for The Hastings Banner in Hastings, Michigan. His emphasis includes schools, local government, business, environment and health. He has previously held internships at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SLAM Magazine and the Riverfront Times. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in American Culture Studies and Writing from Washington University in St. Louis. As a section editor at the school newspaper, he won First Place in Feature Writing from the Missouri College Media Association for his story on a pop-up course exploring the broad ramifications of COVID. In his free time, he  likes to play basketball, listen to British rap and talk endlessly about his hometown of Philadelphia.

FlintBeat.com

Flint Beat is a hyperlocal news website covering Flint, Mich. with a focus on local government accountability, solutions journalism, and the restorative narrative. Flint Beat was launched in 2017 to help fill news gaps in the community with a mission to empower, impact and inform the residents of Flint.

Traverse City Record-Eagle

The Traverse City Record-Eagle is northern Michigan’s largest news outlet, operating print and digital publications, including a daily print edition, a quarterly magazine and two podcasts. The Record-Eagle has a strong history of strong watchdog reporting complemented by artful narrative writing. Our newsroom is situated in downtown Traverse City, but serves a five-county core coverage area as well as broad, growing sections of news desert in northern Michigan.