Norman Webster Fellowship 2025 (up to $125,000)

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About Norman Webster Fellowship

The Norman Webster Fellowship is being established to honour the legacy of the late Norman Webster and his contributions to Canadian public service journalism. It is intended to amplify the ecosystems of small Canadian newsrooms; recognizing their critical role in keeping communities connected through their local news, providing a diversity of voices and opinions, and maintaining journalistic independence.

Designed to address current needs in Canadian journalism, the Norman Webster Fellowship will also help early career journalists explore new opportunities and gain important experience. While its themes may evolve through each iteration in consultation with its jury, stakeholders, recipients and newsrooms, its core will remain rooted in public service journalism.

• Sponsor Organisation: The Michener Award

Benefits of Norman Webster Fellowship

Fellowship

• Two fellowships, one for each English and French media, will be awarded every 24 months to independent, local Canadian newsrooms, valued up to $125,000 each, providing a unique opportunity to produce a groundbreaking story or series of stories, give opportunities to an early career journalist, and potentially partner with a national media outlet to further the reach and impact of their work. All resulting stories produced as part of the Webster Fellowship will be translated into either French or English to connect with a wider Canadian audience.

Norman Webster Fellowship Requirements

To apply for the Norman Webster Fellowship, you must be a newsroom executive with authority over the proposed journalistic project. Preference will be given to:

• A non-partisan local news organization based in Canada, serving small- to medium-sized communities (i.e. this fellowship is not for national media).
• Local news organizations are defined as news outlets that maintain independence from those they cover, demonstrate a commitment to accuracy and transparency in reporting methods, and are devoted primarily to reporting on and for communities within a defined geographic area.
• Preference will be given to applicants that would normally not be expected to have access to the resources required by this journalistic undertaking.

Criteria

• Must be an independent local media outlet. Media is defined as print, broadcast or digital media. All forms of story-telling including text, photos, graphics, video and audio are eligible.
• Project must be investigative in nature, with a strong focus on public service journalism with notable impact for the community.
• Applications are required to include the hiring of at least one early-career journalist, defined as having 2-6 years of experience, to either lead or contribute to an investigation or cover a new beat, or to backfill day-to-day newsroom activities so as to provide an in-house reporter with this opportunity. Newsrooms will be responsible for assigning/hiring this individual.
• The project can be new or something that is already being worked on.

Application Date and Process

• Click on the link to the application website to apply.

Applications will close on March 21, 2025. Applications will be accepted in both English and French.

Application Deadline

21 March, 2025

Scholarship Application Portal

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