One compelling reason for you, dear reader, to be donating or subscribing to The American Prospect is to support our writing fellows program. There is a reason this program has produced several influential progressive journalists: It's the only entry-level job in progressive journalism in which the core responsibility is writing, not fact-checking or answering phones. In recent years, other news organizations have chipped away at or ended their programs for new journalists. But TAP's writing fellows not only earn a living wage (with benefits!) but get to hone both their journalistic and analytic skills -- and hopefully move on to long and successful careers in progressive media.
About a year and a half ago, I was a devoted reader of a certain pseudonymous blogger. When TAPPED was looking for guest writers, I suggested we bring him on. And after I discovered this blogger was, in fact, a journalism school student who would be graduating soon, I pushed him to apply for the Prospect writing fellowship.
That blogger is a TAPPED writer you now know and love, Adam Serwer. Reading his thoughts on race and the election or his reporting on U.S.' preventive detention policies, I'm proud that he works at TAP -- where he is both a reporter and an opinion journalist -- rather than doing a different sort of work at a mainstream news outlet. Ditto for our other amazing writing fellow, Tim Fernholz.
With more reader support, we can make sure that this program continues to be the best in the business. As Ezra Klein, a former writing fellow himself, wrote a few years ago:
Right now, the Prospect has nearly 50 applications for the writing fellowship, many of them awesome prospects. we'll be able to hire one of them. With more funding, we could hire more. The Left always talks about how few good jobs there are for talented grads, but here's a spot where something could conceivably be done about it.So let's do something about it.
--Ann Friedman
