Louisville Public Media (LPM) is expanding its local nonprofit newsroom with help from the national reporting initiative Report For America (RFA), an initiative of The GroundTruth Project. Both 89.3 WFPL News and the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting have been selected to host an RFA corps member beginning June 1, 2020. Louisville Public Media is one of 164 newsrooms selected to host RFA reporters in 28 states and Puerto Rico.
Report for America is a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities. This year’s corps was chosen after a highly selective national competition that drew more than 1,800 applications. Leading journalists, editors and academics from a diverse spectrum of backgrounds and different media platforms acted as judges.
“The talent level of our applicants was extraordinary,” said Kim Kleman, National Director of Report for America. “And it shows that there’s a new generation that can’t wait to get out there, connect with residents and report on what’s happening in communities throughout the country.”
At KyCIR, Graham Ambrose will cover the underreported challenges with youth and social services throughout the commonwealth.
Ambrose covered the Iowa presidential caucuses for the Quad-City Times in Davenport, Iowa. Previously he covered the fallout from the worst-ever flood of the Mississippi River and the hollowing out of the rural and industrial Midwest for the Dispatch-Argus, an in East Moline, Ill. He was an intern at The Boston Globe and The Denver Post.
John Boyle will cover health for WFPL News, as well as Southern Indiana communities. Ambrose and Boyle were two of 225 journalists selected for its 2020 reporting corps.
Boyle has spent the past year as a reporter for the News and Tribune, an Indiana publication, covering Clark and Floyd counties in the southern part of the state. In that time, he focused on the operations of local governing bodies, ranging from those of the smallest towns to the largest cities. His first tenure at the newspaper lasted from 2016 to 2017, serving as the education reporter during school board shakeups and major referenda. Boyle also reported on health care as an investigative reporter at Berkeley Research Group in New York City.
“We’re thrilled to be a part of Report For America, and appreciate the support for growing our newsroom,” said WFPL Director of News and Programming Erica Peterson. “John and Graham will fill key coverage areas for our community, and we’re really excited to welcome them.”
The additional reporting positions are part of Louisville Public Media’s strategy to grow its civic news services. This growth is already in process as the WFPL, KyCIR and Ohio Valley ReSource newsrooms have shifted to cover the emerging and immediate needs of our community during the coronavirus pandemic. The addition of these two new reporters will help to continue that trajectory during the outbreak and afterward.
With support from national funders, Report for America covers a portion of each reporter's salary. LPM is also seeking local donors to help support this reporting expansion. To date, support has been provided by the Facebook Journalism Project, Trager Family Foundation, Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, and local donors.
If you would like to make a donation in support of our local match, visit LouisvillePublicMedia.org/RFA. Louisville Public Media is a nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organization.