Apply for the McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism

Deadline: November 15, 2015

The McGraw Center for Business Journalism at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism offers a fellowship program. The aim of the McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism is to support in-depth, ambitious coverage of critical issues related to the global economy and business. In an age when many news organizations no longer have the resources to tackle complex, time-consuming stories, the Fellowships enable experienced journalists to do the deep reporting needed to produce a serious piece of investigative, analytic, or narrative journalism.

The McGraw Fellowship provides editorial and financial support to journalists who need the time and resources to produce a significant story or series that provides fresh insight into an important business or economic topic. Applications are accepted for in-depth text, video or audio pieces, and the organizers encourage proposals that take advantage of  more than one storytelling form to create a multimedia package.

Fellowship

• Fellows will receive grants of $5,000 a month for one to three months; in exceptional cases, longer grants based upon specific proposals will be considered.
• The McGraw Center provides editorial supervision during the Fellowship. Fellows will be assisted to develop their projects during the reporting phase and frequently edit the completed stories.
• Fellows will also receive assistance with placing the articles. In some cases, the organizers partner with established print, radio or digital outlets; in others they will publish them as e-books or through the CUNY J-School’s book imprint. The stories also run on the McGraw Center website.

Eligibility

• The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism is open to anyone with at least five years professional experience in journalism. Freelance journalists, as well as reporters and editors currently working at a news organization, may apply.
• Applicants should have proven ability to report and execute a complex project in their proposed medium; ideally, candidates will also have a strong background or reporting expertise on the subject of their piece.

Application Process

• Applicants should submit a well-focused story proposal of no more than three pages through the accompanying application form. Think of it as pitch, much like you would submit to an editor at a newspaper, magazine, digital outlet, or radio station: give us enough preliminary reporting and documentation to demonstrate that the story is solid.
• The proposal should highlight what’s new and significant about the story, why it matters and what its potential impact might be. If the subject has been covered elsewhere, the proposal should note where those stories have run and how the proposed piece would differ.
• Applicants should also briefly outline a proposed reporting plan and a timeline for completing the story, and let the organizers know if a media outlet is lined up to run the story.
• In addition, applicants should enclose three journalism samples. The samples should be professionally published work that showcases your ability to tackle an in-depth story in the proposed medium. Please also provide a resume and references from two editors or others familiar with your work.

For more information, visit The McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism.