2025 RJI Fellowship - Reynolds Journalism Institute

Chosen projects often include devising new strategies or models to solve a problem, building new tools, creating a prototype or advancing a prototype so it’s ready for investment or launch. All projects will be built and implemented in a newsroom within the span of the 8 month fellowship.

Whatever your idea, its benefits should be able to extend to other news organizations and the people who depend on them. You will publish regular updates at rjionline.org to share what you’re learning and how it could benefit news organizations. At the end of your fellowship, you will publish the results and lessons learned from the implementation of your project after it has been tested or utilized in a newsroom.

RJI Fellowships are open to U.S. citizens and news organizations as well as international news outlets. We also welcome proposals from international journalists who plan to partner with U.S.-based news, technology and civil society organizations.

We have two types of RJI Fellowships:

1. Residential

This year’s residential fellowship is for an individual who wants to spend a year at RJI to create a resource to help newsrooms generate new sources of direct revenue. Some examples include: growing and making use of first-party data, creating new products, improving existing options like sponsorships and memberships.

The fellow will collaborate with RJI staff, students and faculty on-site at our institute in Columbia, Missouri. They will get a living stipend and have access to funding through the institute for project expenses. The end product will be a free, accessible and equitable resource that has been piloted across the country in community-centered newsrooms before the end of the fellowship.

• START DATE: July 1, 2025
• DURATION: 8 months (two academic semesters)
• STIPEND: Up to $100,000 for project expenses + a monthly living stipend.
• APPLICATION DEADLINE: Feb 7, 2025

2. Remote: Nonresidential or Institutional

Nonresidential fellowships are a remote fellowship where the funding goes directly to an individual to let them pursue an idea outside of their day job/work. You will make at least one visit to RJI to meet your Fellow cohort, RJI leadership, faculty, students and access on-site resources. Your project will be implemented and tested in the newsroom(s) of your choice during your fellowship, before your final product is launched for journalists to utilize.

• START: July 1, 2025
• HOW LONG: 8 months
• STIPEND: Fellows receive a $25,000 stipend + a $5000 impact bonus, payable in increments as deliverables are met for each stage of the fellowship,
• APPLICATION DEADLINE: Feb 7, 2025

Institutional fellowships are a remote fellowship where the funding for the fellowship goes to the company or institution, rather than an individual. RJI will collaborate with the individual assigned to lead the team/project, that individual will be named an RJI Institutional Fellow. The Institutional Fellow will visit RJI with the fellow cohort to meet RJI leadership, faculty, students and access on-site resources. The stipend for this fellowship can be used for salary relief for the fellow, or for another purpose that the company or institution determines will best ensure the success of the fellowship project. The project can be implemented and tested at the institution or in another newsroom of their choice during the fellowship.

• START: July 1, 2025
• HOW LONG: 8 months
• STIPEND: Fellows receive a $25,000 stipend + a $5000 impact bonus, payable in increments as deliverables are met for each stage of the fellowship.
• APPLICATION DEADLINE: Feb 7, 2025