Meredith-Cronkite Fellowship Program

The Meredith Corporation and its Phoenix television station, KPHO CBS 5, sponsor a week-long multimedia fellowship program for top broadcast journalism students from underrepresented groups at the Cronkite School and around the country.

The students spent a week each January – during most schools’ winter break – working in the CBS 5 newsroom with KPHO reporters, producers, editors and videographers, and with instructors from the Cronkite School. The program is led by Mark Lodato, the Cronkite School’s assistant dean and news director, also a former investigative reporter at CBS 5; Sue Green, director of Cronkite News Service (broadcast); along with the CBS 5 news director, Michelle Donaldson.

Meredith-Cronkite Fellows receive hands-on experience creating news packages and anchoring newscasts on deadline while learning about newsroom ethics and leadership. Specific sessions include:

• How to get your first job — tips from news directors and recent grads
• Secrets of producing a top-flight audition tape
• Live reporting 101
• Three things that will make you the No. 1 reporter at your station
• How to craft exceptional news packages
• Developing and pitching winning story ideas
• Perfecting your voice-over skills
• Problems in the field — and how good reporters work around them
• Real-world broadcast ethics: What would you do?
• One-on-one mentoring and career advice from the pros

Ten fellows are selected each year in a competitive process, half from the Cronkite School and half from other schools around the country. Students leave with a highly polished newscast from KPHO’s studios.

Students from universities outside of the region each receive a $2,000 stipend to cover expenses. Cronkite students receive a $500 stipend.

Since the program began in 2007, students have participated from schools across the country including University of California Berkeley, University of Missouri, University of University of North Carolina, University of Southern California, the University of Maryland, University of Memphis, Howard University and more.

"This experience has basically been a crash course in real-world reporting," wrote Maxine Park, an ASU student who participated in the fellowship program and who was since hired as a multimedia journalist at usatoday.com, in her evaluation. "The things we learned here can’t be taught in a classroom."

Nadine Yanes, a participant from University of Florida, concurred in her assessment.

“I thought that much of what I was going to learn was just 'polishing' stuff that I need to know for my first job," Yanes said, "but it exceeded that and was getting me prepared for my second job.”

Paul Karpowicz, president of Meredith’s Broadcast Group, said the program gives promising broadcast journalism students a major-market experience while allowing Meredith “to preview talented students for possible work at our 14 broadcast stations.”

Edward Munson, the KPHO vice president and general manager, said the fellowship gives participants “an unparalleled experience in a professional newsroom.”

Meredith Corporation is one of the nation's leading media and marketing companies, with holdings in magazine and book publishing, television broadcasting, integrated marketing and interactive media. Meredith owns 14 television stations that reach nearly 10 percent of TV households across the country. In addition to CBS 5 in Phoenix, Meredith owns WGCL-TV (CBS), Atlanta; KPTV (FOX) and KPDX-TV (UPN), Portland, Ore.; WFSB-TV (CBS), Hartford-New Haven, Conn.; WSMV-TV (NBC), Nashville, Tenn.; KCTV (CBS) and KSMO (WB), Kansas City; WHNS-TV (FOX), Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, S.C.-Asheville, N.C.; WNEM-TV (CBS), Flint-Saginaw, Mich.; KVVU-TV (FOX), Las Vegas; WFLI-TV (WB), Chattanooga, Tenn.; WSHM, (CBS) Springfield, Mass.; and KFXO-CA (FOX), Bend, Ore.

How to apply to the 2011 Meredith-Cronkite Fellowship Program, Jan. 1-6, 2012:
Send a cover letter, resume, a DVD with samples of your work, and names and contact information for three references to:

The Meredith-Cronkite Fellowship Selection Committee
Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Arizona State University
555 N. Central Ave., Suite 302
Phoenix, AZ 85004-1248

Application materials must be postmarked by Oct. 17, 2011.

For more information, contact Sue Green, Susan.C.Green@asu.edu.