Tegna, WMAZ Partner On Reporting Initiative

Tegna Inc. and WMAZ, Tegna’s CBS affiliate in Macon, Ga. (DMA 121), have created a local reporting partnership with Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Knight Foundation awarded Mercer University’s Center for Collaborative Journalism a $2 million grant to expand local television news reporting, enhance their innovative journalism education model and increase community engagement initiatives. The grant money will allow the Center for Collaborative Journalism to add a full-time reporter who will work with WMAZ and students to produce relevant and impactful local stories that will appear on-air and on 13WMAZ.com. Content will also be produced for Mercer’s own TV station, WMUB.

“We look forward to partnering with the Center for Collaborative Journalism to produce local stories that inform and engage,” said Jeff Dudley, WMAZ president-GM. “Like the Center and Knight Foundation, we believe that quality, trusted, fact-based journalism can make a difference and serve the greater good. It is our hope that through this partnership, students feel better prepared to start their journalism careers while understanding the important role we play in our communities.”

The Mercer Center for Collaborative Journalism brings students, faculty and veteran journalists together in a joint newsroom. Since 2012, the program’s journalism students have published more than 600 stories for local news organizations and produced content for NPR, The Associated Press, ESPN and other regional and national media outlets. The center has also completed several major, award-winning community engagement projects.

Support for Mercer’s Center for Collaborative Journalism is part of Knight Foundation’s efforts to advance excellence in journalism and journalism education, and to help news organizations inform people in communities of all sizes through experimentation, innovation and leadership. Knight has made many investments in this area, including the Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative, which aims to help advance digital transformation at local news organizations across the country.