UAlbany Journalism Program Pairs Students with Local Newsrooms

By Bethany Bump

ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 21, 2025) — On Election Night 2024, a handful of UAlbany journalism students gathered at a watch party in Albany to interview the winning candidates of state and local elections for the Spotlight News in Delmar.

"I feel like local elections are very much overlooked when it comes to politics," said J.T. Stone, a senior journalism major. "A lot of my friends on Election Night were staying at home, maybe just following on their phones and watching the results, whereas I got to go out and interview the candidates who had won and get their reactions. It was such an amazing experience."

The students are were paired with the newsroom as part of a new initiative to address news deserts by providing under-resourced local news outlets with additional college student-produced content.

The program began last semester with support from the Center for Community News (CCN) at the University of Vermont and the new SUNY Institute for Local News, which SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. announced last fall. Elaine Salisbury, a lecturer in UAlbany’s Department of Communication, was named a CCN Faculty Champion and awarded a grant to get the program off the ground.

Four students in her Community Journalism class spent the Fall 2024 semester reporting for the Spotlight News, an award-winning weekly newspaper in Albany County that has struggled to retain staff amid downsizing and attrition that has affected local newsrooms nationwide.

“When I first started here about 10 years ago, we used to have eight people here,” said Michael Hallisey, managing editor of the Spotlight News. “Over the years, as reporters found jobs elsewhere, we couldn’t fill those positions and ended up taking on more responsibilities. This has happened to newsrooms everywhere. So to have four more brains to be able to use, work on stories and compose articles for our readers, we couldn't be happier with this partnership.”

A woman with short gray hair talks to students seated at a table topped with laptops and newspapers.
UAlbany Lecturer Elaine Salisbury meets with journalism students at the Spotlight Newsroom in Delmar. (Photo by Patrick Dodson)

Approximately 80 million Americans live in news deserts, according to the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University. Researchers at the University of North Carolina identified 14 New York counties considered news deserts in 2020. Between 2004 and 2018, New York state lost 40 percent of its operating newspapers and saw a 63 percent decrease in newspaper circulation.

“It's no great surprise that our news media is suffering today,” Salisbury said. “It's seen a loss of credibility on the national level in particular. But while most people do trust their local news outlets, unfortunately, they are the ones taking the biggest hit in terms of revenue stream.”

Pairing college students with struggling newsrooms both provides aspiring journalists with real-world experience and local newsrooms with extra support.

As part of the program, UAlbany students attended town board meetings and interviewed local, state and business officials about developing news stories, including proposed budgets, policy and zoning changes, a planned redesign of Delaware Avenue, and plans for a new National Guard division headquarters in the town of Colonie. Students also provided on-the-ground Election Night coverage, capturing video and interviews with winners of local state Assembly and county races.

“It was the highlight of my semester,” said Callie Martin, a junior journalism major who transferred to UAlbany from Hudson Valley Community College, where she previously worked as editor of the school paper. “Just getting back into the field and interviewing people — there's nothing like putting your boots on the ground. You can't recreate that in a classroom environment.”

A man sits on a desk and provides feedback to a young woman seated in front of a laptop in a local newsroom.
Michael Hallisey, managing editor of the Spotlight News, works with UAlbany junior Callie Martin as part of a new program pairing UAlbany students with local newsrooms. (Photo by Patrick Dodson)

Students received support and feedback from Salisbury and the Spotlight News staff, who helped them hone story ideas, find sources, come up with meaningful questions and look over rough drafts.

Despite having a full class schedule, Stone decided to enroll in Salisbury’s class at the last minute in hopes of gaining more journalism experience.

“In this field specifically, you want that real-world experience,” he said. “You want to get your feet wet and make mistakes, you want to publish stories and you want to start making an impact as soon as possible. And courses like this really help you do that. It helps get your name out there, it helps you build connections, it helps you build your portfolio of work. I wish that everybody would know about this course and hopefully take it and get as much out of it as I did.”

The program will continue in future semesters with support from CCN, SUNY and the Lumina Foundation, which committed $150,000 over the next two years toward faculty champions and its impact award program. This semester, the program has expanded to include students in intermediate reporting and writing and multimedia courses, and may expand to include other disciplines, as well.

"Students learn to approach and converse with a variety of people, from officials and residents to local activists," Salisbury said. "They also learn to evaluate and distill large amounts of information into readable, engaging and reliable material. The skills learned in this partnership are transferable to any discipline."

Meanwhile, SUNY has committed an additional $160,000 over the next two years toward up to 20 summer reporting internships, which will pair student journalists with their hometown news outlets.

“It's no secret that journalism and local journalism in particular are in challenging times right now. Our newsroom is no exception to that,” Hallisey said. “Through this program, we're trying to promote this journalistic skill set for future generations, and we have that conversation with students that this is not an easy profession, but it's something that society needs in a free democracy.”