Submissions are now open for the MJ Bear Fellowship, an one-year fellowship is designed to provide support and guidance to early-career journalists on a digital journalism project, as well as their own professional development.
Themes for projects may include audience and social engagement, product development and digital or business strategy.
The fellowship is designed for up-and-coming journalists between the ages of 23 and 30 who are just beginning to make their voices heard in the industry and who are working to expand the boundaries of digital news through ongoing creative and innovative projects. Fellows can be working inside or outside the newsroom, and they encourage freelance and independent journalists to apply.
Benefits
The fellowship provides:
- Registration to ONA’s annual conference. Fellows get free registration to digital journalism’s largest event and opportunities to network and share their work. The fellowship covers registration, hotel and flights for ONA23, Aug. 23-26 in Philadelphia.
- Three tailored coaching sessions. Based on the projects that fellows are working on and the skills they are looking to build, ONA works with industry leaders to design custom coaching sessions for the group. Past sessions have covered topics such as pitching projects, career advancement in a changing world, audience engagement, marketing and entrepreneurship.
- ONA membership, with three years’ dues paid in full.
- Additional opportunities to showcase work and expertise. During their fellowship year, fellows share insights from their projects and career journeys to ONA’s community. These insights become evergreen resources for the digital journalism community.
- Each of the 2023 fellows will work on a project related to digital journalism over the course of their fellowship.
What are you looking for in a digital project?
- The project is an important part of the application.
- It needs to be something already started — not just an idea or a concept. They need to see something they can review.
- It does not have to be a completed project; indeed, those that focus on breaking news are going to be ongoing. It does need to be a project started on or after Jan. 1, 2022. The reason for the date is that it needs to be current — not something done two years ago as a graduate student thesis.
- The project needs to show creativity and innovation.
- Themes for projects may include audience and social engagement, product development, and digital or business strategy.
Eligibility Criteria
- The fellowship is open to digital journalists from around the world. In 2023, they will select six fellows. Applicants must meet the following requirements at the time of application:
- Born between June 26, 1993, and June 25, 2000
- Be a working digital journalist (either for an organization or self-employed); ONA encourages freelancers and journalists from diverse backgrounds to apply.
- Be fluent in English
- Be involved in a digital journalism project
- Full-time students are not eligible.
Timeline
- June 2023: 2023 fellows announced
- Aug. 23-26, 2023: ONA Conference
- September–December 2023: Coaching sessions
For more information, visit Online News Association (ONA).
