Chips Quinn Program for Diversity in Journalism

Chips Quinn Program Announces 2024 Early Career Reporters

Journalism Funding Partners has selected 11 early-career journalists to provide a one-year mentorship from leaders in the newsroom and Chips Quinn alumni. The Chips Quinn Program continues its commitment to enhancing diversity and providing career growth for aspiring journalists from underrepresented communities.

About

The Chips Quinn Program for Diversity in Journalism, an initiative founded by Freedom Forum and administered by Journalism Funding Partners, provides mentorship and training for early career journalists.

Within a fast-paced and rapidly changing industry, we’ve heard from veteran newsroom leaders and new employees alike that more access to mentorship is essential to retaining diverse talent. That’s because experienced mentors can provide advice and camaraderie, along with being a sounding board for new ideas or even an inspiration to emulate. Perhaps most important, a mentor can become a trusted confidant who encourages you to advocate for what you need to thrive professionally.

“Mentoring means I can pass on the knowledge I've acquired from my career to the up-and-coming storytellers in hopes that they'll be even better journalists than I could have imagined,” said Khristopher J. Brooks, a reporter for CBS MoneyWatch and 2006 Chips Quinn alum.

From 1991-2019, the program was focused on placing diverse journalists into newspaper internships and evolved to address a critical need in journalism. Since 2020, the Chips Quinn Scholars program has been enlisting mentors from its pool of more than 1,400 alumni and pairing them with interns working in various Gannett newsrooms across the country.

In 2024, Freedom Forum partnered with Journalism Funding Partners to grow the program under JFP’s administration with funding from Freedom Forum.

“Young journalists of color often lack the networks and support some of their peers may have thanks to privileges,” explained Denver Post reporter Elizabeth Hernandez, a 2014 Chips Quinn alum. “It's important they have mentors.”

The Chips Quinn Program for Diversity in Journalism launched in 1991 with the mission to diversify the industry’s workforce pipeline. The new program will continue to honor the late John C. “Chips” Quinn Jr., a newspaper editor who believed in the importance of diversity in newsrooms to better reflect the communities they serve.

Testimonials

Nolan D. McCaskill

“Shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced she would step down from leadership after two decades atop the Democratic Caucus, I found myself in a room with the most powerful woman in American politics, her staff and only seven other reporters for an hour-long interview. My presence there would not have been possible without my transformative summer as a Chips Quinn scholar, which, to my surprise, led to a career in political journalism, taking me to the halls of Congress, the White House and the presidential campaign trail.”

Nolan D. McCaskill, congressional reporter for The Messenger and CQS 2014

Nolan D. McCaskill

FAQ

Founder

Alumni

More than 1,400 aspiring journalists have been named Chips Quinn participants since 1991.