WRITING

Michael J. Collins

Michael J. Collins covers K-12 and higher education in Bowling Green, Kentucky, for Bowling Green Daily News' daily print publication. Collins sees public education as essential to a healthy democracy and believes it often goes under appreciated. Prior to working at BGDN, he attended Western Kentucky University and worked at its school newspaper, the College Heights Herald. Starting his first year with no prior experience, Collins went from general reporting to Editor-in-Chief by junior year, earning the paper two Pacemaker awards in 2022. His first print publication as Editor-in-Chief covered the devastation brought on by Bowling Green's December 2021 tornadoes. He spent his summers working at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering general multimedia stories, at Louisville Public Media's WFPL radio station, writing and producing radio news segments, and at the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, exploring rising costs in Kentucky prison commissaries and judicial oversight laws. He graduated with a B.A. in journalism in 2023.

AL.com

AL.com is the largest digital news site in Alabama, and one of the nation’s largest local news sites. It is part of the Alabama Media Group, which also operates social brand “It’s a Southern Thing,” “This is Alabama,” “People of Alabama” and the millennial-focused news brand “Reckon.” Alabama Media Group is part of Advance Local. Content for AL.com comes from three Advance Local newspapers: The Mobile Press Register, Birmingham News, Huntsville Times. The staff includes 75 reporters, editors, social producers and videographers.

Telegraph Herald

The Telegraph Herald news site and paper, published six days a week, is the nearly-exclusive news source in the Dubuque tri-state area (Dubuque, Iowa sits on the border of Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin). Its mission is to connect the community with high quality journalism, and as a locally-and independently-owned news organization, it takes its role in the community seriously.

Dallas Free Press

Dallas Free Press, a nonprofit news site, launched in January 2020 with the mission of amplifying voices and exploring solutions to the city’s systemic inequities. It focuses community journalism efforts on three zip codes in South Dallas and West Dallas, which are predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, respectively.

Albany Herald

The Albany Herald is Albany’s longest-serving news organization, covering news, sports and features in the metro area and southwest Georgia, and providing commentary forums with its editorial page and social media sites. Founded in 1891 and located in the heart of Albany, The Herald and its website, albanyherald.com, combine to provide a widely read and seen forum for news, advertising and entertainment.

KUCB

KUCB is a public radio and television station in Unalaska, Alaska. We are owned and operated by Unalaska Community Broadcasting, a non-profit formed in 1985 with the mission to inform, educate, entertain, and engage by providing news and arts and culture programming. Our signal serves a community of about 5,000 people. Our stories, however, have a much broader reach: We’re surrounded by some of the most productive fishing grounds in the country, and we’re in the middle of an international shipping corridor. Our station is located in the Aleutian Islands, the ancestral territories of the Unangax Peoples, who have lived in this region more than 9,000 years. Our newsroom is staffed with two local reporters, and they cover stories from all over our thousand-mile region.

The New Bedford Light

The New Bedford Light is a free, nonprofit, nonpartisan digital news outlet dedicated to in-depth coverage of urgent issues facing the City of New Bedford and the South Coast region of Massachusetts, a richly diverse and economically challenged area. In addition to hard-hitting investigative and explanatory stories, we celebrate our unique local culture through inventive coverage of the arts. It's an unusual content mix, tailored to reflect the whole of our complex city. In just over a year of publication, The Light has grown into a professional news organization with a 14-member staff, a neighborhood-based newsroom and a broad community of avid supporters. Our newsroom prioritizes watchdog/accountability journalism; we strive for impact. To date, we have exposed serious inequities in the fishing industry, evictions and gentrification, public health and safety, educational resources and much more.

Longview News-Journal

The Longview News-Journal is part of third-generation, family-owned community newspaper and multimedia news organization. We are committed to digital-first community journalism—not just reporting the news, but also holding officials accountable for their actions. We work to keep the public informed of the news through our print and digital platforms. We strive to be fair, accurate and respectful while reporting the news, from hard-hitting investigations to the daily news and features. Our goal is to use all available journalism tools in the service of reporting on, and bettering, our community.

The People-Sentinel

The People-Sentinel is a for-profit news organization that has served Barnwell County since 1852. We are now expanding into two neighboring rural South Carolina counties, Allendale and Bamberg counties. Our mission is to provide factual, unbiased and accurate reporting to keep our communities informed while holding public officials accountable. In addition to our weekly print newspaper, our website, videos, social media and podcasts keep our community informed.

Metro Puerto Rico

Metro Puerto Rico is a for-profit multi-platform media outlet in Puerto Rico that delivers journalistic information focused on young professional adults. Our printed product reaches all the urban areas with a strategic distribution. Our website reaches the entire audience with Internet access in Puerto Rico.