The Sidney Hillman Foundation is sponsoring the fifth annual “Reporting the U.S. Workplace” program in January 2025 for journalists covering labor and workplace issues.
The two-day workshop will again be hosted at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. Newmark J-School’s Tom Robbins, Investigative Journalist in Residence, and Andrew Lehren, adjunct professor and senior editor on the NBC News investigations team will serve as the program’s conveners.
This program is designed to give participants expertise on how to cover a range of pressing workplace issues including employment classification, strikes and worker organizing, the actions of the National Labor Relations Board, and how to find and use government and corporate data to tell stories.
Print, broadcast and digital journalists who cover labor or other beats that touch on the workplace are eligible. The program will take place in-person on the J-School’s Manhattan campus, January 23-24, 2025.
“‘You cover work, you cover everything,’ said the late New York Times labor reporter Bill Serrin, and journalists require expertise to cover the intricacies and complexities of the workplace,” said Alexandra Lescaze, executive director of the Sidney Hillman Foundation, “Our goal is to give early to mid-career reporters the knowledge and support to identify important labor stories and cover them skillfully,”
The curriculum will include practical sessions with experienced journalists, academics and labor experts, and participants will have the opportunity to discuss their stories and secure grants through the program to help support their reporting.
All expenses including transportation, hotel and meals are covered by the foundation. Reporters who are interested in the program should apply here. The application deadline is November 1, 2024, but applications will be considered on a first-come basis.
Launched in January 2020, “Reporting the U.S. Workplace” has drawn approximately thirty reporters each year from a range of outlets including Bloomberg, Reuters, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Detroit Free Press, the Verge, Texas Observer, NBC News, The Seattle Times, Business Insider, Fortune, Politico, Teen Vogue, Vice, the Star Tribune, the Tampa Bay Times and the Wall Street Journal, as well as freelancers.
“The 2024 workshop was maybe the best two days of professional development I have ever spent,” wrote a 2024 participant in an evaluation survey, “The panelists were alternatively informative, inspiring, and thoughtful. The group sessions proved to be equally stimulating. The two-days were useful for my journalism, and I left with better-developed stories that I am working on and some ideas and resources for some new stories. Can’t recommend this program enough.”
The journalism school has for several years run similar boot camps to train journalists to cover fiscal issues facing state and local governments, as well as climate change and resiliency. “Labor issues are complex and increasingly relevant to our understanding of power relations and social justice in today’s world,” said Graciela Mochkofsky, dean of the Newmark J-School, “Through our partnership with the Sidney Hillman Foundation, we provide exceptional training that equips reporters with the skills necessary to keep our communities informed about these issues.”
The Sidney Hillman Foundation honors excellence in journalism in service of the common good via its annual Hillman Prizes and monthly Sidney Awards.
Questions? Please contact Alexandra Lescaze at or Alex@HillmanFoundation.org