Expanding Journalism Around Education, Work And The Innovation Economy

Between ChatGPT’s debut in 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic, and industrial policies enacted by both the Biden and Trump administrations, billions in federal as well as state, and private investment in tech-based economic development are flowing into communities across America. These investments are altering the structure of public education, the workforce, and economy while the capacity of journalists to cover that intersection is on the decline.

According to the Poynter Institute, the United States has seen a roughly 75% decline in local journalists per 100,000 residents since the early 2000s. At the same time, public debates around AI and advanced technologies are hot on the campaign trail.

The double threat of the decline of place-based journalism with the rapid pace of technological progress impacting work, workers, and the economy has presented challenges for policymakers, business leaders, and families alike.

In response, a new Future of Work Reporting Fellowship from the Future of Work and Innovation Economy initiative at the think-tank New America and the non-profit newsroom Work Shift will help shore up capacity of local journalism at the intersection of workforce education, technological change, and changing regional economies.

Institutions implicated in the implementation of these investments span the gamut of K-12 schools, universities and community colleges, libraries, national laboratories, industry associations, workforce development boards, labor unions, economic development agencies, and community-based groups.

The fellowship will offer place-based journalists, reporters, freelancers, and storytellers funding, professional development, and a community of practice to expand local reporting on how education, workforce development, and the innovation economy intersect in real communities.

Building Local Journalism Capacity Around Emerging Policy, Education, and the Future of Work

Reporting projects will address the public at large and, in particular, education leaders and staff, policymakers, and industry and economic development leaders in regions where education and tech-based economic development are intersecting.

For example, stories could address the state of play of communities with a nearby national laboratory, a ManufacturingUSA Institute, or the implementation of federal industrial policy investments from a range of government agencies including the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Agriculture, the National Institutes of Health, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the National Science Foundation.

Beyond actions in the government and the private sector, stories could address how a forthcoming “third wave of philanthropy,” enabled by the AI boom, is reshaping technology-driven change in a community.

Reporting projects should be a special in-depth article, package, or series of articles, or a similar long-form project for other media. The project may be in whatever medium the Fellow works—prose, audio, video, photo—so long as the piece is published by the end of the Fellowship period in August 2027.

New America and Work Shift are now seeking applications for the inaugural Future of Work Reporting Fellowship cohort through July 24, 2026 with plans to announce awardees this fall.