We just got some great news that we can finally share with you: The Athens County Independent has been selected as a Report for America host newsroom. If you’re not familiar with it, Report for America helps newsrooms bring on new staff to cover a particular topic, or beat.
In our case, we’re going to hire a reporter focused on housing starting in July (with applications available here).
We chose to focus on housing because like most of Appalachian Ohio, Athens County has a housing crisis. We don’t have enough affordable, HUD-approved and/or accessible housing for those who need it. We don’t have enough housing, period. And too many of our residents suffer with poor housing conditions. Local governments, non-government organizations and nonprofits are slowly addressing this crisis, but major gaps remain.
It’s exciting to be able to fulfill our longtime wish for a dedicated housing beat. We’re particularly excited about landing a spot with Report for America — which selected just 70 newsrooms to support this year from among hundreds of applications. Ours was the only newsroom selected in Ohio.
Here’s the thing: Report for America provides only half of the report’s salary in the first year, with decreasing support in years two and three. We’re responsible for the other half, as well as benefits and payroll taxes. For the 2026–27 program year, our share is nearly $36,000, and it’s going to be more in subsequent years.
I know we just finished our NewsMatch campaign (our biggest ever, thank you so much!), and here we are again, asking for your help. But we’ve made it this far because of our community’s support — and we need your support now so we can provide this much-needed area of coverage, this year and in the future.
Thank you so much for your support, both as readers and as donors. You keep us going, in so many ways.
