The Norman Webster Fellowship was established to honour the legacy of the late Norman Webster and his contributions to Canadian public service journalism. It is intended to help smaller Canadian newsrooms with big journalistic ambitions by augmenting their resources. The Fellowship recognizes the critical role local news plays in keeping communities connected, providing a diversity of voices and opinions, and maintaining journalistic independence. The Norman Webster Fellowship recognizes that many important accountability stories aren’t being told, and wants to give editors the tools they need, while helping early career journalists explore new opportunities and gain valuable experience. This is a new program, and its themes may evolve through each iteration in consultation with its jury, stakeholders, recipients and newsrooms. Its core, though, will remain rooted in public service journalism. Read the announcement here.

Criteria

• Must be an independent local media outlet. Media is defined as print, broadcast or digital media. All forms of story-telling including text, photos, graphics, video and audio are eligible.
• Project must be investigative in nature, with a strong focus on public service journalism with notable impact for the community.
• Applications are required to include the hiring of at least one early-career journalist, defined as having 2-6 years of experience, to either lead or contribute to an investigation or cover a new beat, or to backfill day-to-day newsroom activities so as to provide an in-house reporter with this opportunity. Newsrooms will be responsible for assigning/hiring this individual.
• The project can be new or something that is already being worked on.

Eligibility

To apply for the Norman Webster Fellowship, you must be a newsroom executive with authority over the proposed journalistic project. Only Canadian newsrooms are eligible. Preference will be given to:

• A non-partisan local news organization based in Canada, serving small- to medium-sized communities (i.e. this fellowship is not for national media).
• Local news organizations are defined as news outlets that maintain independence from those they cover, demonstrate a commitment to accuracy and transparency in reporting methods, and are devoted primarily to reporting on and for communities within a defined geographic area.
• Preference will be given to applicants that would normally not be expected to have access to the resources required by this journalistic undertaking.

Adjudication process

The Michener Awards and Fellowships pride themselves on their independent and objective adjudication process. The Norman Webster fellowship will be judged by an adjudication body reporting to the Michener Awards Foundation Board.

• Applications will open on January 6, 2025 and will close on March 21, 2025
• Applications will be accepted in both English and French.
• Announcements of fellowship winners will be made in June, 2025 in conjunction with the Michener Awards ceremony at Rideau Hall.