The Bloomfield Info Project seeks five Bloomfield residents with experience writing to join our first paid community reporter training series. Apply by Mar. 25.

This five-week program is hands-on training where you’ll learn journalism principles and news reporting skills to help you find and share information to meet our community’s information needs.

You’ll publish an article addressing a need you identify and qualify for future paid reporting assignments.

Participant stipends are made possible by Clara Maass Medical Center and RWJBarnabas Health.

You should consider applying if:

  • You’re age 17+ and live, work, or go to school in Bloomfield, New Jersey.
  • You have any experience in nonfiction writing, including listicles, news writing, essays, blog posts, memos, reports, or research papers.
  • You can commit to attending all five two-hour workshops and completing associated assignments, including one publishable article.

What you’ll do

  • Participate in workshop on Zoom Thursdays from 7 pm to 9 pm beginning Apr. 14 through May 12.
  • Complete assignments between workshops. 
  • Commit 20 hours in total for training and assignments with stipends of $350 paid upon completion. 

How to apply

Click here to view the application and apply by Mar. 25.

More about the training

The workshop series will be led by Bloomfield Info Project director Simon Galperin. Simon is an award-winning journalist, technologist, and organizer who has provided training and strategic support to dozens of newsrooms across the U.S. before launching the Bloomfield Info Project in 2020. 

Most recently, Simon was awarded a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University in recognition of his work. In 2021, he won N.J. Society of Professional Journalists’ Best Community Journalism Award for the Bloomfield Info Project’s reporting on policing in Bloomfield.

The training curriculum was developed with support from the New School’s Journalism + Design program in collaboration with N.J. Civic Information Consortium.

Here’s are the themes of each training:

  • Journalism and power 
  • Informative storytelling and community mapping
  • Observing, researching, and notetaking
  • Interviewing and question development
  • Writing profiles or explainers

And here are the assignments you’ll complete:

  • Pre-readings
  • Talk to two people about their info needs
  • Research and map a chosen topic
  • Take notes at a public meeting
  • Conduct an interview
  • Write a profile or explainer

Interested? Apply by Mar. 25 here.