NEW BEDFORD — The Light is welcoming a new reporter to cover climate change and environmental issues in partnership with Report for America.
Adam Goldstein, a graduate student at the University of Missouri with a passion for the environment, will join the staff beginning in July.
Report for America, a national service program dedicated to placing journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities, announced today the placement of more than 60 reporters and photojournalists in positions across the country.
Goldstein, a 2019 graduate of Tulane University, will cover environmental and climate issues for The Light.
“We are thrilled to devote a full-time reporter to our new climate and environment beat, which is so important to New Bedford and the South Coast region,” said Founding Editor Barbara Roessner. “The issues are complex. Our job is to dig deeply into the science, the policy and politics, and explain the real impact on people’s lives.”
Goldstein, who is fluent in Spanish, is part of a diverse Report For America corp in which nearly half of the journalists placed are of color and more than half are women. Report for America believes that by helping its partner newsrooms better reflect the communities they serve, they can strengthen trust in local media.
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Report for America, an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit media organization, has now matched more than 600 journalists with local newspapers, public radio stations, digital platforms, and television outlets, since its launch in 2017.
“Today’s newsrooms have become so lean that it’s become difficult for them to provide the mentorship and support that early-career journalists might be seeking,” said Rachel Rohr, vice president of program development at Report for America. “By sharing resources and fostering opportunities for peer networking, we can strengthen their reporting and their well-being.”
Report for America also leverages an innovative three-to-one regional funding match model, paying up to half of a corps member’s salary, while its local sustainability team trains newsroom partners to raise the other half from local funders. This approach promotes collaborative investment in local journalism, increasing the chances of sustaining watchdog community reporting, for the community, by the community.
Contact New Bedford Light Director of Advancement Chrystal Walsh with any questions about making a restricted major gift to help fund this three-year position.
To learn more about Report for America and its efforts to strengthen communities through public service journalism, please visit reportforamerica.org
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Founding benefactors:
Joan and Irwin Jacobs fund of the Jewish Community Foundation, Mary and Jim Ottaway
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For questions about donations, contact Chrystal Walsh, director of advancement, at cwalsh@newbedfordlight.org.
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