“Y’all Should Start a Newspaper.”
That was the challenge posed in 2020, when COVID shutdowns had scattered Denison University students across the country. In response to their new journalistic diaspora, students and professors launched The Reporting Project (TRP), an experiment in multimedia community storytelling designed to reconnect the people of Licking County, Ohio, with the stories unfolding in their own backyards. What started as a way to bridge the isolation of global crisis has since grown into a flourishing, award-winning local journalism initiative.
"The Most Egoless Newsroom"
Picture a shared Google Doc with eight (or more) writers and editors shaping a story together. This discipline of collaboration defines TRP’s work, and the veteran journalists who mentor Denison students recognize just how rare it is. “It’s the most egoless newsroom or community that I’ve ever worked in,” says Alan Miller, longtime journalist and former Executive Editor of The Columbus Dispatch. “It’s everyone pulling in the same direction without seeking credit for it.” Freed from the pressures of a more competitive approach, TRP’s nonprofit structure and editorial integrity make space for community storytelling to take precedence over individual bylines and algorithmically trending topics.
Journalism Rooted in Place
The Reporting Project’s stories grow out of the neighborhoods surrounding Denison’s campus in rural central Ohio. Its reporters have provided sustained coverage of Intel’s $20 billion arrival in the region, spotlighting the local impacts of a massive semiconductor plant and the tensions it creates in a heavily agricultural area. From election night coverage to the costumes and chaos of the Buckeye Lake Pirate Festival, from council chambers to school board meetings where democracy sputters forward in fits and starts, the newsroom documents the full spectrum of community life in Licking County.
Higher Education and the Revival of Local Journalism
How do we tell the stories of the places where we live? Who gets to shape our community narratives, and why shouldn’t it be us? These are the questions TRP puts to its students. The newsroom pairs them with seasoned reporters and educators, including Jack Shuler (founder of TRP and Director of Journalism at Denison), Alan Miller, managing editor Julia Lerner, and faculty from Denison’s growing journalism program. This partnership is more than pedagogy; it’s a working model for rebuilding trust in the press, reviving civic dialogue, and inspiring a new generation of journalists to pursue their craft with curiosity, humility, and care.
Catch the Conversation
Our conversation with TRP on the 16:1 Podcast takes you inside The Reporting Project. If you are a journalist, an educator, or simply a neighbor curious about how local stories can drive local revival, we encourage you to listen and discover why telling the stories of where we live is more urgent and more possible than ever.