ASHLAND – There’s a new reporter headed to Ashland, courtesy of our partnership with Report for America (RFA). Everyone at the Source is excited to welcome Mariah Thomas to our newsroom when she will take over for Nathan Hart as the RFA reporter at Ashland Source.
Publisher Jay Allred recognized the key Ashland community partners that helped make this position possible.
“Over the past two years, Report for America corps members have reported over 400 local stories for Ashland readers that would’ve gone uncovered without them. The reason we’re able to have great young journalists like Mariah join us to serve Ashland is because organizations like the Ashland County Community Foundation stepped into the breach with us to help make her work possible.
“There’s no getting around the fact that legacy newspapers are struggling, but there’s a way forward. It’s a combination of entrepreneurial hustle, trustworthy journalism, and reader investment through membership.”
It’s easy. You can support the work of our newsroom by becoming a member. It’s easy, affordable (as little as $7 / mo) and 100% of member support is invested back into our news reporting.
Mariah will arrive in north central Ohio from Montana and begin work in mid-July. She graduates in May with a 4.0 grade point average from the University of Montana. She will have earned two bachelor of arts degrees, in journalism and political science, from the University of Montana.
Mariah has experience working with the student newspaper, the Montana Kaimin, where she has experience in news, features, sports and copy editing. Last summer she was a news reporter intern at the Helena Independent Record via the Montana State News Bureau. You can follow her on Twitter at @mariaht917.
“Many regions of Montana, my home state, are news deserts. Petroleum County residents, for example, have to travel at least 75 miles to neighboring counties to access a local newspaper. Towns are left without reporters to educate them on local elections, school board meetings and community events. Even in the cities, journalism strongholds, local newsrooms have downsized as circulation has fallen,” Thomas stated.
“The jobs local reporters do are important. I believe locally-based reporters understand their communities far better than someone from the outside. Those gaps in local reporting are exactly the reason that Report for America corps members exist.”
-Mariah Thomas, Ashland’s newest Report for America corps member
Mariah’s work in Ashland County will encompass an education and workforce development beat, which includes general assignments with Solutions and Engagement reporting angles.
She is among the new corps members joining hundreds more who will continue reporting on undercovered communities and topics for their second or third years in the national service program.
Report for America has now matched more than 600 journalists with local newspapers, public radio stations, digital platforms, and television outlets, since its launch in 2017.
“Beyond talented reporters and photojournalists, we actively sought out individuals who see journalism as a calling, who want to make a difference within their communities,” said Earl Johnson, vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement at Report for America. “Together, our early-career and experienced corps members will produce tens of thousands of articles on critically undercovered topics — schools, government, healthcare, the environment, communities of color, and more.”
About Report for America
Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities across the United States and its territories. By creating a new, sustainable model for journalism, Report for America provides people with the information they need to improve their communities, hold powerful institutions accountable, and restore trust in the media. Report for America is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, an award-winning nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to rebuilding journalism from the ground up.
