Jonathan Blakley, a 2012 Nieman Fellow, has joined Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). Blakley, formerly of NPR, oversees MPR’s news coverage as its program director. Read more
Samuel Loewenberg, whose work focuses on global health, has been named a fellow with the Investigative Journalism Project at Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics. Read more
Dina Kraft, a 2012 Nieman Fellow, received an Ochberg Fellowship at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. She is the associate program coordinator of the Media Innovation track at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. Read more
2012 Nieman Visiting Fellow Paul Salopek and his epic 21,000-mile walk around the world are the focus of National Geographic’s December 2013 cover story. In To Walk the World, the first in a series, Salopek writes “Walking is falling forward. Each step we take is an arrested plunge, a collapse averted, a disaster braked. In this way, to walk becomes an act of faith. We perform it daily: a two-beat miracle—an iambic teetering, a holding on and letting go. For the next seven years I will plummet across the world.” He is tracing the ancient paths of human migration and telling the stories of the world along the way. Read more
David Skok, NF ’12 and director of Globalnews.ca, is joining The Boston Globe as digital adviser to the editor. In a memo sent to staff on Nov. 26, Globe editor Brian McGrory said “David will play a key role in our upcoming push to further define our two brands — bg.com as a broader, more ambitious site that better reflects the creative journalism of the Globe, and a redesigned boston.com as a sharper, edgier site with a strong news spine.” Read more
Two recent Nieman Fellows have been awarded Dart Center Ochberg Fellowships by the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. Maggie Jones, NF ’12, a contributing writer at The New York Times Magazine and Finbarr O’Reilly, NF ’13, a Reuters staff photographer based in West Africa, will join 10 other journalists to deepen their reporting of violence, conflict and tragedy. Read more
2010 Nieman Fellows Jeff Howe and Gary Knight have teamed up to produce “Murder on the Mekong,” a new Atavist e-book that takes a close look at a series of mysterious murders in the Golden Triangle in 2011. Read more
Investigative reporter David Jackson, NF ’11, is part of the Chicago Tribune team that that has won the 2012 Investigative Reporters & Editors’ FOI Award for “Empty-Desk Epidemic.” The series exposed a devastating pattern of student absenteeism in the Chicago school system and the indifference of city officials who ignored the problem.
NPR’s Howard Berkes, a 1998 Nieman Fellow, was among the finalists for the in multiplatform /large category for “As Mine Protections Fail, Black Lung Cases Surge,” co-produced by NPR, the Center for Public Integrity and The Charleston Gazette. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's John Diedrich, an affiliate from the Class of 2012, was a finalist with colleagues in two categories: the FOI Award for “Police Problems,” and the Investigations Triggered by Breaking News Award for “Spa Shooting.” Read more
Editor and author James Geary, a 2012 Nieman Fellow, has been selected as the deputy curator of the Nieman Foundation for Journalism. In this position he will serve as editor of Nieman Reports, oversee other Nieman print and online publications and manage a range of duties related to the Nieman Fellowship program and the foundation’s journalism outreach efforts. Read more
The work of a number of Nieman Fellows has been recognized recently with national journalism awards. Honored Niemans include Hui Siu Fun, NF ’11; Lisa Mullins, NF '10; David Jackson, NF ’09; James Causey, NF ’08; Ken Armstrong, NF ’01; and Melissa Ludtke, NF ’92. Read more