The Melbourne Press Club is delighted to announce the first recipient of its Regional Journalism Fellowship Program, supported by the Brian M Davis Charitable Foundation.
Kayla Jones (pictured), who completed Year 12 at Greater Shepparton High School last year, is the first participant.
The Press Club established the Fellowship program with the Foundation late last year to provide opportunities for school leavers from diverse regional communities to embark on a journalism career.
Working with partners the Greater Shepparton Foundation and McPherson Media Group (MMG) in Shepparton, the Press Club designed a program to provide a six-month paid cadetship for a local school leaver.
Kayla will begin her cadetship at The Shepparton News next month. The Press Club will also provide her with a mentor to support her during the cadetship.
MMG content director, Christine Anderson said she was delighted to be able to offer Kayla the Fellowship position. “We are keen to see young people get some experience in working in the media and we are particularly pleased that Kayla is a local who wants to learn more about story telling in our community,” she said.
Kayla will be working with a young team in the Shepparton office and will join the cadet training program.
Press Club CEO Nick Richardson thanked the Brian M Davis Foundation for its support for the initiative and praised the collaboration from MMG and the Greater Shepparton Foundation to bring the program to life.
“We hope that we can build on this program to provide more support across regional Victoria to identify budding journalists and to give them an opportunity to develop a career. It’s vital that our regional newsrooms have strong local talent to generate the kind of content that engages local audiences,” Nick said.
A second candidate from the Shepparton region is expected to join Kayla in the next few months.
Press Club President Ashlynne McGhee said: “We’re really proud to be running programs that support the broadest possible range of young journalists to find their way in our industry.”
“The best journalism is brave, creative and connected and that requires more diversity in the cultural backgrounds and life experience of the journalists sitting around the news desk,” she said.
Greater Shepparton Foundation Executive Officer Amanda McCulloch said the organisation was proud to partner on the Regional Journalism Fellowship.
“Our vision is to achieve an inclusive, interconnected community where everyone has an equal opportunity to participate – and giving our young people an opportunity to gain experience and skills in their chosen field supports these aspirations,” Amanda said.
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