Applying new solutions to unmet needs: creativity plus implementation. It is not wild ideas that lead nowhere, and it is not limited to digital technology.
Taking a risk to create something new — inside an existing organization or outside of one — by seeing and responding to an opportunity. It is not the same as starting a business.
Inspiring and enlisting others to reach a shared goal. It is not the same as being the boss or a CEO.
Informs and engages the public with reliable news and information in myriad forms of media. While its tools and techniques are changing, its core principles of accuracy, verification, independence, fairness and relevance remain sacred.
The Director must have an established reputation for journalism excellence. The Director must also be deeply conversant with current trends and challenges in journalism, including but not limited to information technology, media economic forces and challenges to independent journalism. The Director should have experience managing projects and leading change in journalism organizations. The duties of the Director require both extensive professional experience and an understanding of the nature and organization of a university, particularly one of Stanford's complexity.
The duties include leading, directing and overseeing the program's operations, including the selection of fellows, their study and research during the fellowship year, the program's administration and finances, and its short-term and long-term planning and goal-setting. The director represents the program both within and outside the university, and is the program's primary voice on journalism and related issues.
Emphasis will be placed on the applicant's record of journalistic achievements and on any previous association with universities.
In carrying out the fellowship program, the Director works with a Program Committee composed of Stanford faculty members and leaders from the journalism profession. He or she also works closely with a Board of Visitors, drawn from the top ranks of journalism and related fields, that provides direction and oversight of the program.
As JSK celebrates a milestone, current Director Jim Bettinger will pass the torch to a new director.
JSK launches a series of initiatives to strengthen the fellowship curriculum and help spread the program’s impact into newsrooms and beyond.
The original model worked well for a long time — and then the huge disruptions to journalism spurred us to make big changes. We now work to serve the needs of journalism and journalists by focusing on innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership.
A $4 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation put us on a permanently endowed basis in 1984, and the program was renamed for John S. Knight.
Journalism fellowships at Stanford started in 1966 with a powerful idea: giving reporters and editors free run of the classrooms and libraries of a great university, which would pay off in superb journalism. We grew and evolved during the 1960s and ’70s, with widening support from journalism and journalists.
We select journalists with great ideas they will pursue while in our program and beyond. Recent fellows have launched journalism startups, created cross-border investigative reporting partnerships, crafted tools to enhance reporting on immigrant communities, to cite a few examples. Others have been sought out to lead innovation in established news organizations.
Our fellows come from all over the world and from all types of journalism, including daily newspapers, radio and television, non-profit news startups, blogs and ethnic media. They explore and use Stanford, in addition to working on their innovation proposals. They take their cues from our partners and allies in Silicon Valley, as they prototype, refine and retest their ideas. And they don’t do it alone. Knight Fellows work closely with each other — and us — to develop their proposals and explore alternatives. That’s how we are transforming journalism.
