Dow Jones and Columbia Journalism School Announce London Expansion of HBCU Media Collective
The talent incubator will empower emerging journalists with business news reporting skills and global mobility while promoting newsroom diversity.
Dow Jones, a global provider of news and business information, and Columbia Journalism School today announced the expansion of the annual Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Media Collective. Now in its second year, the HBCU Media Collective has added an international component to boost students’ awareness of global opportunities while enhancing newsroom diversity and promoting financial literacy for participating students.
The eight fellows of this year’s program were hand-selected by deans and faculty members from Howard University, Morehouse College, Morgan State University, Spelman College, and the newly added North Carolina A&T and Florida A&M University.
From May 29 to June 12, 2024, participants of this journalism training program will work alongside professional journalists at Dow Jones’s Barron’s and MarketWatch newsrooms, and participate in newsroom training hosted by The Wall Street Journal. Fellows will also take graduate-level courses at Columbia University during the first part of the program.
“Our continued partnership with Dow Jones offers a dynamic, transformative opportunity to a second cohort of students,” said Dr. Jelani Cobb, Dean of the Columbia Journalism School. “We’re invested in training diverse talent to elevate and safeguard the strength of a free press that can build trust among all communities. I look forward to welcoming this year’s fellows to Pulitzer Hall.”
As part of this year’s extended program, fellows will have the opportunity to travel to London for five days, gaining valuable exposure to News Corp properties including The Sun, The Times, Times Radio, The Fifth, talkSPORT and Virgin Radio.
“The expansion of the HBCU Media Collective underscores the shared commitment we have with Columbia in developing bespoke learning opportunities to identify and mentor the next generation of aspiring journalists,” said Brent Jones, SVP of Training, Culture & Community at Dow Jones. “The new global aspect of our program will offer our 2024 fellows with invaluable insights from world-class institutions, and we anticipate this immersive experience will be treasured by them for years to come.”
Students in this year’s cohort will work on breaking news desks at Barron’s, where they will learn financial topics and how to cover news in real time, incorporating diverse voices and perspectives in the reporting.
“The HBCU Media Collective has become a fantastic program for promising young journalists to get real-world experience in finance reporting,” said David Cho, Editor in Chief of Barron’s and head of editorial content for Dow Jones Wealth and Investing. “I’m excited to witness this year’s talented cohort work alongside our senior news editors for their program assignments.”
The HBCU Media Collective is one of many opportunities Dow Jones offers to encourage careers in financial journalism and as part of its commitment to building an even stronger workplace culture. Other Dow Jones Diversity Equity & Inclusion initiatives include:
- Trust Fellows, an internal professional advancement program
- Lehman Journo-Tech Fellows, which incorporates data tools and nontraditional journalists in the news-gathering process
- WSJ Finance Reporting Fellowships, a professional fellowship for early-career journalists; the next application season opens in September 2024
- Morgan State Business Journalism Exchange, an outreach program that continues with an accredited course in investigative journalism in Academic 2024-25.
- Year-round internship opportunities at Dow Jones publications
The inaugural cohort of the Collective also attended top-rated graduate-level courses, newsroom training and worked alongside editors at The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, and MarketWatch. They also pitched story ideas, which resulted in a byline article, including a Page One story for the Journal.
About Dow Jones
Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering content to consumers and organizations around the world across multiple formats, including print, digital, mobile and live events. Dow Jones has produced unrivaled quality content for more than 130 years and today has one of the world’s largest news-gathering operations globally. It is home to leading publications and products including the flagship Wall Street Journal, America’s largest newspaper by paid circulation; Barron’s, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News, Investor’s Business Daily, Factiva, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones Newswires, OPIS and Chemical Market Analytics. Dow Jones is a division of News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV).
About Columbia Journalism School
For more than a century, the Columbia Journalism School has been preparing journalists in programs that stress academic rigor, ethics, journalistic inquiry and professional practice. Founded with a gift from Joseph Pulitzer, the school opened in 1912 and offers Master of Science, Master of Arts, Master of Science in Data Journalism, a joint Master of Science degree in Computer Science and Journalism, The Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism and a Doctor of Philosophy in Communications. It houses the Columbia Journalism Review, the Brown Institute for Media Innovation, The Tow Center for Digital Journalism, The Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights and the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma. The school also administers many of the leading journalism awards, including the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, the Maria Moors Cabot Prizes, the John Chancellor Award, the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism, the Dart Awards for Excellence in Coverage of Trauma, the Paul Tobenkin Memorial Award, and the Mike Berger Award.
Media Contact for Dow Jones
Anthony Zurita
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Media Contact for Columbia Journalism School
Sarah M. Lally
[email protected]