This spring, Montana Free Press will join local news outlets across the United States in the first cohort of a national visual journalism initiative led by CatchLight, a San Francisco-based visual media organization that seeks to provide inclusive, accurate, and locally contextualized information to the public through accessible and high-quality visual journalism.
Following decades of jobs decline in the journalism industry that have disproportionately affected visual professionals, the initiative, in partnership with Report for America, will fill gaps in underserved markets by placing full-time photojournalists with salary subsidies in select newsrooms nationwide.
“These partnerships represent significant progress for sustained capacity in visual journalism in the United States. What visual journalism offers is a powerful way for newsrooms to deliver reporting across multiple channels and provide audiences with information that is a true reflection of their daily realities,” said CatchLight CEO Elodie Mailliet Storm. “It is also a unique opportunity to widen the scope of visual journalism from its predominant focus on national news to also include locally relevant coverage and representation.”
“As a statewide news organization that delivers critical reporting on issues that affect local communities, we’ve known for a long time that visual journalism has been a gap in our growing newsroom,” said MTFP founder and executive director John Adams. “This partnership creates an incredible opportunity to deliver more high-impact journalism that continues to help Montanans see our state clearly.”
The fellowship application is open until Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. Qualified photographers are invited to apply for full-time staff positions with the following newsrooms joining the CatchLight and RFA initiative:
- Montana Free Press (Helena, Montana)
- Borderless Magazine (Chicago)
- The Current GA (Savannah, Georgia)
- Fort Worth Report (Fort Worth, Texas)
- Lookout Eugene-Springfield (Eugene, Oregon)
- Mirror Indy (Indianapolis)
- MinnPost (Minneapolis)
- Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service (Milwaukee)
- MLK50 (Memphis, Tennessee)
- Signal Cleveland (Ohio)
- Verite News (New Orleans)
- The Waco Bridge (Waco, Texas)
“As the number of journalists nationwide has declined in recent years, the loss of visual journalists working in local news has been particularly acute. We are pleased to expand our partnership with CatchLight to bring more critical visual storytelling to underserved communities,” says Teri Hayt, Director of Corps and Newsroom Excellence for Report for America, and a former longtime newsroom photo editor. “The impact of visual journalism cannot be underestimated as we reach new audiences on social media and across all publishing platforms.”
The participating newsrooms will receive comprehensive visual desk support from the CatchLight Local Visual Desk, which provides a suite of shared services, tools, and training to enhance its members’ visual reporting capabilities.
To date, CatchLight has helped establish 10 long-term photojournalism positions and played a key role in advancing audience growth and engagement for their newsroom partners. Early support and partnership from RFA helped spur this success. Visual reporting collaborations with the CatchLight Local Visual Desk have informed policy decisions at the local, state, and federal levels by intimately documenting on-the-ground perspectives that are commonly overlooked in mainstream news.
In 2025, CatchLight will accelerate at a faster pace than ever in its history, more than doubling the number of newsrooms it currently serves. For the first time since its founding, membership to the CatchLight Local Visual Desk is open to all U.S.-based local news outlets that are seeking visual solutions for their audience and sustainability objectives. Recent newcomers to the program include Wisconsin Watch (Madison, Wisconsin), Enlace Latino NC (Raleigh, North Carolina), and The Current (Savannah, Georgia).
The CatchLight Local Visual Desk was made possible with initial investments from Enlight Foundation, Hearst Foundations, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and The Kresge Foundation, in partnership with PhotoWings. Additional support has since come from Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Arnold Ventures, the MacArthur Foundation and Press Forward.
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