The Local is an award-winning online publication devoted to exploring urban health and social issues in Toronto, with an emphasis on magazine-style journalism and reporting from local communities. We publish in-depth features, essays and opinions, along with multimedia and other experimental forms of storytelling.

The aim of The Local Journalism Fellowship is to provide training and mentorship to aspiring and emerging journalists from communities underrepresented in Canadian media, and to tell stories on subjects and from perspectives too often ignored. This year, Fellows will work with our team to produce our fall issue—“Precarious”—a series of stories about precarious labour in the GTA. Each fellow will pitch and produce one feature story for the issue.

The Local Journalism Fellowship is a paid 10-week opportunity for emerging and aspiring journalists to:

• Gain first-hand experience working alongside editors and collaborators through one editorial cycle that culminates in the publication of The Local’s Fall 2021 issue
• Create a piece of polished journalism for publication in the Fall 2021 issue on precarious labour; projects can be reported features, first-person essays, audio stories, photo essays, or other forms
• Learn the craft of magazine-style, community journalism through a weekly seminar series featuring guest speakers from leading publications

Candidates with journalism experience and education are welcome, but we are also eager to hear from applicants who are passionate about writing, editing or producing, but do not have formal journalism training. Fellows should be interested in writing about labour, and should come with an original idea for a story about the way we work in 2021.

The Fellowship begins June 21, 2021 and ends August 30, 2021 and is part-time, remote and flexible. With the exception of weekly editorial team meetings and seminars, fellows are free to organize their own schedules as long as deadlines are met.

Fellows will be paid $2,500. Up to four fellows will be chosen.

HOW TO APPLY

Applications for the 2021 fellowship are now closed.