Investigative journalism fund

I have a really exciting announcement - an Investigative Journalism Fund. 

One of the challenges we have in Wales is that we have a limited media landscape. The journalists we do have are very good but we don’t have enough of them.

This challenge is compounded by the fact it is very hard for young/newly qualified journalists to develop and hone their investigative/in-depth reporting skills. 

When you are early in your career you tend not to have the contacts, experience or time to really delve into an issue. You also don't have the portfolio or profile that makes news organisations inclined to give you that chance. 

We know that with a Welsh Parliament election in 10 months, the amount of misinformation will soar and the need for informed public interest journalism will be higher than ever. We also know that young people and those in deprived areas are already the main targets for this misinformation. 

In order to try and address all these challenges I am really excited to announce that I have now allocated a significant amount of money for an Investigative Journalism Fund. 

So how will this work?

Well any young (ish) or newly trained journalist can pitch a piece of public interest journalism about Wales that they would like to produce. I believe that young reporters are very well placed to identify the issues that affect them and tell these stories. 

If accepted they will be paid between £150-£500 (depending on the depth or investigation needed) for the work. 

I will then work with them to plan and structure the investigation/research. I will provide them with contacts where needed because access can often be challenging for new journos. 

Once completed, their work will be published on my newsletter where they will receive a byline as well as across my social media channels where they will be fully credited. 

This will not only see them paid for their craft, but also have some proper public interest journalism that they can point to when pitching for other work elsewhere. Plus it will help raise their profile, confidence and contact base as well as honing those fundamental journalism skills that are needed now more than ever. 

There are some conditions:

• They must either be Welsh or based in Wales. The idea of this is to build the volume and quality of journalism in Wales to highlight Welsh issues. 
• The subject or the investigation must be on one of the following (very broad) topics:
  • Climate change and biodiversity loss
  • Poverty
  • The rise of the far right and/or political extremism
  • Exposing misinformation/disinformation and/or fact checking
• You need some level of journalism training. In an ideal world I would be able to run a journalism apprenticeship to help people into this industry. However my newsletter is less than a year old and I am not in that position yet. So some level of journalistic training/experience is required.
• You should be young (ish) or early in your career. The whole point of this is to develop journalists in Wales. If you are experienced and would like to pitch an idea, I would be happy to hear it. But it will not come under this fund. 

To pitch your idea please submit this Google form. 

If you know anyone who you think would be interested/could benefit from this opportunity please do share it. 

I am so excited about this. Wales desperately needs more people championing Welsh issues and holding those in power to account. I hope this can go a small way towards doing that.