2019 ANNUAL REPORT - Dow Jones & Company

Dow Jones News Fund

2019 ANNUAL REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3................Letter from the President: Richard J. Levine 5................Message from the Managing Director: Linda Shockley 6................Financial Documents 9................College Programs 22...............M. ultimedia Digital Academies for HBCU/HSI Instructors 24...............High School Programs 28..............National High School Journalism

Teacher of the Year 29..............2020 Program & Proposal Deadlines 30..............DJNF Board and Staff

Cover: Daja Henry, Photo: Margo Reed; Anh Nguyen, Emma Swislow and Theo DeRosa, Photo: Bradley Wilson; Ellie NakamotoWhite and Layla Ferris, Photo: Ana Koufidakis; Hannah Lang, Kennedy Rose and Laura Spitalniak, Photo: Paul Glader; and Tre'Vaughn Howard, Photo: Ana Koufidakis

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

RICHARD J. LEVINE

Strong Results in Tough Times

Dear Friends,

The Dow Jones News Fund operated in 2019 in the harshest journalistic environment since its founding some 60 years ago--an environment marked by shrinking local and regional newsrooms in the face of everstronger competition from social media for readers and advertising and by constant presidential attacks on journalists as

The basic statistics are revealing. The Fund attracted almost 800 applicants for its flagship professional internships in summer 2019 and placed 79 college students' internships against a goal of 80. Of the 79 internships, 18 were digital media, 15 data journalism, 27 business reporting and 19 multimedia.

producers of "Fake News" and "the enemy

of the people."

Many news organizations returned, among

them The Wall Street Journal, New York

"Journalism is under a lot of stress," Joe Stephens, professor of journalism at Princeton University and a former investigative reporter, observed at the time. "The economic model is falling apart. Newspapers are laying off people. Local newspapers are closing. There are a lot of political attacks."

Times, Reuters, USA Today and American City Business Journals, once again the top provider with 10 internships. The growing participation of nonprofits was also evident, doubling from the prior year to 10 and including the St. Louis American, National Public Radio in Washington, and WNYC, a byproduct of our partnership with the Emma Bowen Foundation and the Institute for

Yet, against this difficult background, the Nonprofit News.

News Fund successfully delivered in 2019

on its mission "to promote journalism

In our pursuit of diversity, the 2019 results

careers" and its vision of helping shape

were especially strong and gratifying,

newsrooms "staffed by well-trained

since the nation's newsrooms are still

innovative journalists who reflect America's overwhelmingly white. For the first time,

diversity and are dedicated to a free, strong 50% of our interns were from diverse

and fair press."

backgrounds; 19% African American, 15%

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Asian American, 8% Hispanic 7% multi- All of these accomplishments and many

racial and 1% Native American.

more, as discussed throughout this annual

report, reflect the talent and dedication of

For the second consecutive year, the

Linda Shockley, managing director of the News

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Fund since 2014; Heather Taylor, manager of

provided a grant to support summer

digital media and programs, and Denise Jester,

journalism workshops on health and

manager of finance and administration.

wellness issues for high school students

in underserved communities. The RWJF Again in 2019, there were several changes in

increased the grant to $50,000 from

the News Fund's board of directors. In May,

$30,000, enabling the Fund to co-

Anna Sedgley, former chief operating officer of

sponsor 10 workshops, up from seven a Dow Jones, was elected a director. In July, Mark

year earlier.

Musgrave, chief people officer of Dow Jones,

resigned as a Fund director with his departure

With college costs and student debt

from Dow Jones, and in September, Kamilah

rising rapidly, the News Fund increased Mitchell-Thomas, who succeeded Mark as chief

the scholarships for successful interns people officer, was elected to the board.

to $1,500 from $1,000. Also important

in our pursuit of diversity was the

In closing, I want to express my gratitude to the

establishment of an Intern Assistance News Fund staff, the residency directors of the

Fund with a $10,000 grant from the Good summer internship program and Fund alumni

Words Foundation headed by Erin Schulte as well as to my fellow directors, News Corp,

Collier, a Fund alumna, with the aim of Dow Jones and the Dow Jones Foundation for

covering special financial needs starting their support of the Dow Jones News Fund and

in summer 2020.

its work to strengthen American journalism.

Sincerely,

Richard J. Levine President

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MESSAGE FROM THE MANAGING DIRECTOR

Alumni Chart the Way Forward

Alumni are central to the continuing success of the Dow Jones News Fund. They lead the industry, they teach aspiring journalists and they give back again and again. Our database has grown from index cards to digital files holding more than 18,000 records on high school workshop participants, high school journalism teachers, college professors and former summer interns. We continue to look for and find members of the DJNF family.

visited their alma matters and dropped in on the internship residencies. Brittany Hite (2007) and Emily Veach (2004) developed a growing slack channel and mentoring program.

Several 2019 interns in New York City struggled with commuting costs; a hurricane forced an intern out of her apartment for several days, another ate once a day while trying to make student loan payments.

It may be that 2019 was our most engaged for alumni so far. Five alumni serve among the 14 members of the Fund's board of directors: Richard Levine (1961), board president and retired Dow Jones vice president for news; Karen Miller Pensiero (1984), managing editor of The Wall Street Journal; LaSharah Bunting (2000), director of journalism at the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; Garry D. Howard (1981), director of corporate initiatives at American City Business Journals, and Gail Griffin (1992), head of digital platforms for T. Rowe Price.

Ms. Griffin reorganized alumni efforts, recruiting committee heads to focus on fundraising, media partnerships and college outreach. Chris Kraeuter (1998), Michael Ryan (1976), Steve Bien-Aim? (2002), Carrie Melago (1997), Jennifer Hicks (2001), Nicole Collins Bronzan (2000) and others, took a strategic approach resulting in a varied group of media partners that yielded 79 internships.

Alumni encouraged their employers to hire DJNF interns, they joined staff at job fairs,

We helped each of them but as alumni shared their own stories, we decided to seek financial support.

The Good Words foundation, led by Erin Schulte Collier (1997), stepped in with a donation to create the Intern Assistance Fund for 2020 interns.

Erin explained her thinking this way: "I want to help make sure that any student who qualifies for a DJNF internship, regardless of income, is able to take the internship. Harmful `traditions' like unpaid internships have left us with newsrooms that are too homogenous to be as effective as they could be, and mean that important stories go untold and great journalists may not get the chance they deserve."

DJNF has been at the forefront of diversity efforts for more than five decades and has always believed interns deserve to be paid and treated professionally. With support and guidance of an ever widening alumni network, we expect to continue fulfilling our mandate and meeting those challenges.

-Linda Shockley 5

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