Community
Foundation Feature | Revitalising regional journalism and proving opportunities for young people
The Greater Shepparton Foundation builds partnerships and collaborations to connect the needs of the local community with essential resources and skills to tackle and disrupt the cycle of disadvantage. The Foundation Features series will help shine a light on those driving change through innovative initiatives, as well as highlight community organisations that align with the foundation’s purpose.
Greater Shepparton Foundation strives for a community where everyone has an equal opportunity to participate. Be it community and social connection, health and wellbeing, housing, education or employment, we believe everyone should have the opportunity to feel secure, participate and achieve their aspirations.
A new project that GSF launched this year in partnership with the McPherson Media Group and Melbourne Press Club and funded by the Brian M. Davis Charitable Foundation is the Regional Youth Journalism Fellowship.
The fellowship will see up to two young people from the Goulburn Valley undertake a full-time six-month placement and be paid to learn and build their skills in the News newsroom, with the support and mentorship of Melbourne Press Club journalists to provide guidance and advice.
The first successful candidate, Kayla Jones, has been appointed and will commence in the News newsroom next week. Kayla is a Year 12 graduate from Greater Shepparton Secondary College. A second candidate is being sought to begin the second fellowship in May.
“I’m very excited to learn how the industry works and to better myself when it comes to writing and sharing important stories,” Kayla said.
The fellowship provides young people with valuable experience and employment close to home.
“I applied for the fellowship because I’ve always enjoyed writing, and it sounded like a good way for me to explore different kinds of writing and get a little bit of experience in something I think I might want to do in the future,” Kayla said.
“I couldn’t go to university this year, so I was really grateful for the opportunity to do something I will enjoy and that will help me while trying to save money and decide what to do in the future.”
The fellowship was the brainchild of Melbourne Press Club chief executive and past Philanthropy Australia journalist Nick Richardson, whose experience across these two organisations led to this innovative philanthropic partnership to support cadetships for school leavers from diverse regional communities to embark on journalism careers.
Research from the Public Interest Journalism Initiative showed just how pervasive the closure of news publications had been in the past decade. PIJI’s surveys of the nation’s news deserts revealed dozens of communities losing their local news providers because of the difficulties of sustaining a print revenue stream in the digital age. And the problem was compelling in rural and regional areas, where many established titles had closed, and those that remained were running much smaller newsrooms.
This is, of course, a global problem that has yet to find a global solution. But what about a local plan, something that might help on the ground? That’s where Nick’s proposal came in … what if we tried to support regional journalism by finding a way to help a local publisher employ more journalists?
Back in 2020, when I was working with the Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation, I met Nick to record a podcast on how our community had coped with COVID-19.
Seeking partners to bring his proposal for the fellowship to fruition, Nick contacted me again, hoping to find a suitable conduit and place-based model to bring the collaboration to life.
With the foundation’s on-the-ground connections and ability to be nimble and responsive, we knew instantly we could pull all the partners together to provide this wonderful opportunity for local young people.
The McPherson Media Group, a local family business that is a stalwart of the Goulburn Valley through its range of publications, including The News, and with the financial support of the Brian M. Davis Foundation, the Regional Youth Journalism Fellowship was born.
We are now seeking expressions of interest from a second recipient to commence in May and would love to hear from any local young person interested in writing, journalism and crafting stories for and about our community.
For more information and to express your interest, email info@greatershepparton.foundation
Until next time.
Amanda McCulloch
Greater Shepparton Foundation