In a recent update from the Edward R Murrow College of Communication, three Murrow news fellows will be sent to Olympia to cover the 2025 state legislative session. The fellows, whose salaries are financed through a $2.4 million apportionment in state funds, will be responsible to hold state politicians up to scrutiny.
This update comes shortly after plans for an Olympia journalism bureau fell through. The idea was to place four journalists in Olympia by 2025 to bolster government reporting, which has decreased in the last few years as newsrooms across the state have seen massive layoffs.
“This is an effort to provide more robust coverage of state politics. This initiative seeks to address that gap,” said Murrow’s journalism chair Ben Shors.
Between 2022 and 2023, newsrooms laid off roughly 2,000 employees, most of whom were reporters, according to the 2024 State of Local News.
One paper anticipating the arrival of their news fellow is the Washington State Standard.
“I’m excited to be involved in the program,” said Bill Lucia, Editor-in-Chief of the Standard.
The Olympia-based paper originally applied for a news fellow in the program’s early days but was denied. When the Olympia news bureau fell through, it became clear that additional reporters were needed in the area. The Murrow fellowship has since granted the Standard a full-time reporter.
According to Lucia, the Standard plans to collaborate with other newsrooms around the state through regular calls to direct the work of the news fellow. The articles written by the Standard’s news fellow (and the other Murrow fellows) can be tracked and used by other newsrooms here through the Creative Commons.
Though some share concerns about state-sponsored journalists covering state politics, Lucia states that “organizers of the program have been deliberate and adamant that these positions will have total editorial independence.”
Ben Shors responded similarly. “To ensure a strong editorial firewall, we have asked working professional editors to coordinate the reporting for three fellows,” wrote Shors in an Zoom meeting invite to discuss the update.
Despite now sending fellows to Olympia, the Murrow fellowship was designed to address local news in areas described as “news deserts”—communities lacking robust local journalism.
The news fellows were to cover “local news and policy issues spanning health, education, economic development, environment, criminal justice and under-represented communities,” according to the website. “Fellows might cover breaking news, but they should be more focused on issues within the community.”
Of the three news fellows headed to Olympia, one will provide written content for the Washington State Standard, and two more will be added to cover radio and television broadcasting, according to Shors.
Author: Olivia Thiessen
