In Oregon, employment in the newspaper industry has fallen nearly 80% since 2000, according to OPB reporting.
And when communities lose journalists, information gaps can be exploited. The Ashland Daily Tidings closed in 2023, and the newspaper’s website was later invaded by artificial intelligence.
When a community loses a local newsroom, residents have fewer places to turn to for regional news that keeps them informed. Report for America is a nonprofit program that places journalists in newsrooms across the U.S. to cover under-reported issues in communities, especially in rural areas.
Danielle Dawson is a collaborative investigative reporter for InvestigateWest, and she covers Central and Eastern Oregon. Simmerdeep Kaur reports for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin and covers the effects of federal policy on health and childcare access in southeast Washington. Alexander Banks reports for the Yakima Herald-Republic and covers education gaps in the Yakima Valley with a focus on solutions. And Alex Frick is a roving rural reporter covering peninsula communities for The Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader in Washington.
They join us with details of their reporting and how their work affects people living in the Pacific Northwest.
Disclosure: OPB also participates in the Report For America program. Holly Bartholomew covers Portland’s suburban communities.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Employment in the newspaper industry in Oregon has plummeted nearly 80% in the last 25 years. Papers have laid off thousands of staff or simply closed down, meaning less local coverage of county commission decisions, of school board meetings, of city government, and on and on. This mirrors a national trend and it’s the reason that Report for America [RFA] was created back in 2017. The nonprofit pays about half the salary of reporters for news organizations that can make the case that they have urgent gaps in coverage. The rest is picked up by those news organizations and by local donors. I should note that OPB’s suburban communities reporter Holly Bartholomew came to us through this program.
Today we’re going to talk to four other reporters in the Northwest who are Report for America corps members. We start with Danielle Dawson. She’s a collaborative investigative reporter for InvestigateWest. She’s covering Central and Eastern Oregon. Danielle, welcome.
Danielle Dawson: Hi, Dave. Thanks for having me.
Miller: Why did you decide to apply for this program?
Dawson: RFA was something that I had always known about, a lot of friends that I had met through my university experience and my master’s program ended up going into the program. So it was always on my radar and I was really drawn to its service-oriented mission, an emphasis in supporting local journalism, community-centric journalism. When I was a young aspiring journalist, I wanted to report on this level and so that really resonated with me. I actually first applied last year, but the program is fairly competitive and it just didn’t work out, but this time it did, and now I am in Oregon covering Central and Eastern Oregon.
Miller: Why did you gravitate to local coverage?
Dawson: I grew up immersed in local news. I saw firsthand how important it is to communities, not only in giving real-time information in the event of an emergency, but it also has the ability to really bind people together and help people understand what’s happening in their own backyard. And I really wanted to do that myself. I especially wanted to do in-depth, investigative journalism because I felt that that had the greatest capacity to make a difference in people’s lives, especially at a local level. You’re highlighting important issues that matter to people in the community and doing it in a way that could hopefully drive change.
Miller: Do you have a beat right now at InvestigateWest?
Dawson: Beyond just the regional beat, I’m interested in a couple of different things. I have been focusing a lot on health care, and coming into this role I previously was very interested in issues that intersect with poverty and the social safety net. I did a lot of homelessness related coverage, housing, behavioral health … I want to also see where the beat takes me. I’m in my first year of this program so I want to cover issues that matter to the people and the communities that I am supposed to be a voice for, so we’ll see if there are any other topics that kind of fall into that umbrella.
Miller: Can you tell us a little bit about your recent road trip through Eastern Oregon?
Dawson: I went through Bend, I went down to Burns, and then up to Pendleton, Hermiston, and that was really cool for me. I’m new to the state, and getting to see the places that you’re supposed to be covering as someone who has a very broad regional beat and also is new to the area, it felt very grounding meeting people in the community and getting a sense for the dynamics, the characteristics. I think that that’s really important as reporters to kind of have as a touchstone, we are representatives of a community. So being there and understanding what’s important to them is supposed to be and should be a guide for me and us as reporters.
Miller: Just briefly, what are you excited to be reporting on next?
Dawson: I am really excited to dive more into health care. Obviously, that is a big topic of conversation right now. Considering my newsroom, we have the luxury of time to really drill in and go beyond just the news of the day. I am very excited to get out a couple of stories about some more things happening beyond just the daily news in the world of health care.
Miller: Danielle, thanks very much.
Dawson: Thanks so much.
Miller: Danielle Dawson is a collaborative investigative reporter for InvestigateWest covering Central and Eastern Oregon. Simmerdeep Kaur joins us now. She, too, is a Report for America corps member. She reports for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. Simmerdeep, welcome.
Simmerdeep Kaur: Hello, thank you so much for having me.
Miller: Do you apply for a particular job through Report for America or are you just sent somewhere?
Kaur: When you’re filling out the application, you can give your top five preferences for newsrooms, but it’s not mandatory that you’ll get matched with your top choice. Once you’ve filled the application, you interview with the Report for America managers and they see, based on your skill set and your past experiences, which newsroom would you be the perfect fit for. Then they send your names to one or two newsrooms and after that, one newsroom will receive five to seven applicants. They interview all the applicants and then after that, it’s the newsroom’s final decision who they want to hire. It’s a long process.
Miller: You ended up in Walla Walla. How do you describe your beat?
Kaur: I’m a federal policy reporter, so I cover the local impacts of the changing federal policies. Any laws passed by the government – for instance, how the changes to Head Start programs are going to impact the Walla Walla Valley, all the Medicaid reforms – I report on how they’re gonna impact our community specifically.
Miller: Man, it is a gigantic job right now with no shortage of stories.
Kaur: Yes, it’s also an exciting time to be a reporter, I think.
Miller: What does the news ecosystem look like in the areas you’re covering?
Kaur: It’s like you were mentioning in the beginning, it’s no surprise to anyone who is listening, I think that local newsrooms across the U.S. are shutting down and local journalism is suffering in terms of funding. But I do feel like at the same time, because of social media and AI, now there is so much more spread of misinformation. And also, there’s so much uncertainty and unknown that is coming with the change of the federal policies.
So I personally feel like the gap between the need for good, solid coverage and the actual coverage, it just keeps widening. That’s where organizations like Report for America step in and they place reporters like me in local newsrooms across the country to hopefully strengthen local journalism.
Miller: Well, let me just put it this way. If you weren’t covering some of these stories in Walla Walla, or in Central or Eastern Washington, would anybody be covering them?
Kaur: The Union-Bulletin is the primary news publication for our area. I can share a story: Initially, the Union-Bulletin was rejected from Report for America, but then some funding came through specifically for reporters to cover federal policies because the community did see there’s a big need for that. Then the Union-Bulletin was selected, that’s how I came here. So I don’t think so. I think that’s why the work that we do is so important because nobody else would be doing it otherwise.
Miller: Simmer, thanks very much.
Kaur: Thank you.
Miller: Simmerdeep Kaur is a reporter for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin.
We’re talking today to four Report for America corps members all around the Northwest. Alexander Banks joins us now. He reports for the Yakima Herald-Republic, with a focus on education in the Yakima Valley. Alexander, welcome.
Alexander Banks: Hello, thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Miller: Thanks for joining us. How did you get interested in education reporting?
Banks: It’s a very long story, so I’ll try to keep it brief. I’m not a traditional college student. It took me about five to six years because I took some time off during the pandemic, but during that time I ended up reading a book that really inspired me to go back to school and get my education. It was called “Up from Slavery” by Booker T. Washington. That book inspired me to go back to Oregon State and get my degree. When I did go back, I always knew I liked writing, but initially I studied English and I was a creative writing minor. I switched to a creative writing major and a journalism minor just because Oregon State doesn’t have a journalism major. During that time, when I was working for the student-run newspaper The Daily Barometer, it got me more into journalism and education specifically just because I’ve had a tough educational career.
I managed to persevere through it, so I wanted to be able to inspire people, younger people who may be going through the same things that I was. And that’s what kind of brought me into educational journalism, to be able to inspire people who may be going through the same things as I am or who maybe need the information that I wish I had when I was their age.
Miller: You have a particular focus on solutions journalism. What does that mean in the context of education reporting right now?
Banks: My newsroom made it clear to me that I would be focusing more on solutions than anything else. In journalism, there’s a lot of reporting on things that are going wrong. And in terms of education, there’s a lot of issues with enrollment, funding and things like that. My editor wanted me to focus more on, what are districts specifically doing to combat the issues that they’re going through? As far as academic success in schools, how are districts implementing initiatives or programs to improve academic success for students, and what does the data show on how well and how effective these initiatives and programs are? That’s kind of my focus as a solutions reporter in education.
Miller: We heard from Danielle and from Simmerdeep before you broadly about what Report for America gives to newsrooms and to their communities. What have you gained, though, personally from this experience?
Banks: It’s definitely opened my eyes. I’m an Oregon native. I grew up in Portland, so being in the Yakima County community was kind of a culture shock for me. I wasn’t used to being in a much smaller town with much different views than people in Portland, so it’s opened my eyes to more communities, to more thought processes that people in communities have, how they think, how they operate and just how they live their daily lives. It’s been cool to kind of see the differences. Even though Portland’s three hours away, just how different the community is from Portland, and just how they kind of find success in the community that they’re in, and how they connect with each other and speak to each other, I think [it] is really cool.
Miller: Alexander, thanks very much.
Banks: I appreciate it. Thank you.
Miller: Alexander Banks reports for the Yakima Herald-Republic.
We’re going to end our Northwest check-in with Report for America corps members with Alex Frick. He is a roving rural reporter covering peninsula communities for The Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader in Washington. Alex, welcome.
Alex Frick: Hey, thank you. Thank you for having me.
Miller: What does it mean to be a roving rural reporter?
Frick: I know it’s definitely a mouthful, but basically what it means, I cover the underserved, underrepresented areas of a very spread out county. About 30,000 people spread out over a very large area. As a roving reporter, I spend a lot of time on the road covering Port Townsend, which is kind of the city hub, to a lot of the areas surrounding trying to cover those underserved areas.
Miller: What drew you to journalism?
Frick: Oh man, that’s a good question. Living in a small town like this, you get to know your community in a lot of ways and there’s a lot of impact you experienced along the way. In a community of this size, journalism is so personal and the people you quote on an everyday basis are not people you don’t see, they’re the people at the grocery store, they’re like their families – and you really see that impact on the ground. When I started doing freelance for this community, that’s just something that really stuck with me.
Miller: So you went from doing freelance to getting a Report for America position at the same paper?
Frick: Yes, actually Report for America came to me a little bit. I was graduating from college and I was looking for opportunities, especially in the area, but as we know, local newspapers, it’s not the easiest place to work at the moment. But knowing that there was a partnership with Report for America and my newspaper was actually seeking it out, they actually came and found me. It’s been a great fit ever since.
Miller: What stories are you most interested in telling right now?
Frick: Jefferson County is one of the oldest counties in the entire country, and what comes with that is a real, real housing crisis that’s happening here that’s a little bit different than everywhere else. I’m covering an entire housing series at this moment. Basically, it covers every layer of the housing crisis told through the perspectives of people living and working inside of it. My series covers the full spectrum. We’re talking about encampment closures – the debates around it – people living in vehicles, temporary setups, structural barriers like zoning, funding, infrastructure, all of those things that really affect the people in this community.
Miller: What do you see as the value of the Report for America program? Obviously, there is the immediate value for you that it has provided you with a job right now, but I’m thinking more broadly.
Frick: Report for America, for me, it really makes it possible for small papers like mine to really dedicate the time to big, slow moving issues like housing or local government. That support really lets me follow stories from an early council debate to real human impact.
Miller: What is the story you’re working on right now that you’re most excited about?
Frick: I’m actually covering a story about the city closing a homeless encampment six weeks before winter, causing a hard deadline. We’re all over it and we think we’re gonna make a difference.
Miller: Alex, thanks so much for joining us. I appreciate it.
Frick: Thank you so much.
Miller: That is Alex Frick. He is a roving rural reporter covering peninsula communities for The Port Townsend and Jefferson County Leader. We also heard from three other corps members from Report for America, all of whom are in the Northwest right now. Danielle Dawson is a collaborative investigative reporter at InvestigateWest. She is covering Central and Eastern Oregon. Simmerdeep Kaur is a reporter for the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. And Alexander Banks is a reporter for the Yakima Herald-Republic, covering education in the Yakima Valley with a focus on solutions.
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