Fresh Eyes on the Media: Meet CJR’s 2025 Delacorte Fellows
Discover the highs, the challenges and the lessons each 2025 Delacorte Fellow experiences.
Each year, the George T. Delacorte Fellowship allows recent Columbia Journalism School graduates to immerse themselves in the media landscape, reporting on emerging trends and storylines for the Columbia Journalism Review. The Fellowships are made possible thanks to the generous support of the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism Fund at The New York Community Trust.
The 2025 Fellows — Meghnad Bose, '24 M.S. Data Journalism, Sacha Biazzo, '24 M.A. Politics, and Lauren Watson, '24 M.S. — reflected on the impact the fellowship has made on their professional lives.
When applications opened last year, Bose knew he had to apply for the fellowship.
A graduate of the data journalism program, he has “always been interested in writing and reporting about the media” and was excited about the opportunity to “look inwards at the journalism industry.”
How important is accountability in journalism and how does this fit CJR’s mission?
“Now that we are living in this hyperpolarized news environment — an extremely fast-paced news environment — you need publications to look at that ecosystem and say, “Okay, here are the trends or here are things to watch out for.
I'll give you an example. I was in Dearborn, Michigan last year on the election trail before the US presidential election, covering how Arab-American voters were receiving news about what was happening in Gaza, Lebanon and in the wider Middle East and how they received that news. Now, that is a story that maybe a lot of newsrooms wouldn't be doing, because you're essentially not covering the news. You're covering consumption of the news.”
As a fellow, how has this experience benefited you as a journalist and Columbia Journalism School graduate?
“I think to be able to start my journalism career in the United States — I've been a journalist in India for several years before this — as a student at CJS, and right after professionally in a newsroom, CJR has helped me understand the US media ecosystem.”
Watson returned to journalism after reporting for outdoor magazines and local news outlets. As a Delacorte fellow, she hopes to bring this background to her work, investigating the journalism industry from a business perspective.
What is it like for you to be able to address the industry as a whole?
“I've always been prone to the bigger thinking side of things. I have a background in running a small business, so having a chance to look at the business models and what's working and what's not working right now in journalism has been really interesting.”
As an intellectual leader in journalism, CJR navigates an evolving media landscape. How can journalists learn from CJR’s work in this area, and has it influenced or motivated your own approach to your work?
“I've been really interested in the standards of how we define journalism, and how we use that to protect journalism or hold the industry itself accountable. And as I wrote in What We're Watching for 2025, I'm going to try to keep the pulse on that as we move forward and let it drive my work.”
Early exposure to journalism as a powerful tool for societal and democratic change led Biazzo to the J-School. Now at CJR, he aims to apply his knowledge and experience while pursuing international reporting in the future.
What overlaps from your degree program apply to this fellowship?
“I worked for ten years as a journalist in Italy and then decided to come to the US to attend the Journalism School.
My former job as a journalist led me to an idea of how things work in the world. And so when, when I started work at CJR I arrived with this kind of knowledge. And, even if we are looking at the media, we consider the media as part of a huge system where politics, economy and everything is involved.”
What are your plans for after the Fellowship?
“Before I came to Columbia Journalism School, I was working as an investigative reporter. I would like to return to my former job, but, of course, with a different approach.
I would like to follow international stories. I think that these two years here really gave me the possibility to enter everywhere, in every different situation. Different countries, with a strong background and how to understand international stories.”
With the next class of graduates finishing their programs this spring, the applications for fellowships are opening soon. Read more about post-graduate opportunities and follow the work of the 2025 CJR fellows. Columbia Journalism School students can apply for the 2026 fellowship here.