Humboldt Journalism Project
Mission Statement: The Humboldt Journalism Project supports investigative and explanatory public interest reporting within Humboldt County, with a primary focus on local governments, organizations, businesses and people that affect the economic lives of striving and underserved communities.
Initial Work: In 2021 the Humboldt Journalism Project launched the annual 40th Award, which honors reporting relevant to those on the lower 40 percent of the income scale. The 40th Award carries a first prize of $1,500 and also offers up to two honorable mentions of $500 each. All journalists, whether staff or freelance, are eligible to enter work that has been aired or published on outlets based in Humboldt County or with an audience primarily located in Humboldt County. The 2022 awards, for reporting during the previous year, went to Hank Sims of the Lost Coast Outpost and Ryan Hutson of the Redheaded Blackbelt. Sims won first place for his coverage of local political redistricting, headlined “The County’s Redistricting Process Has Been a Shambles, and the Maps it is Now Considering are Both Measurably Worse than the Status Quo.” Among other things, his articles pointed out how the proposed changes could have reduced representation for renters by clustering more of them in one supervisorial district. Hutson won an honorable mention for her three-part series on troubles at St. Joseph Hospital as it struggled with staff shortages amid the summer surge in Covid-19 patients. The deadline to enter this year’s contest is Jan. 31, 2024, and the entry form and details are here.
Later work: As funding grows and needs arise, the Humboldt Journalism Project also awards reporting grants for freelance pieces looking at local issues affecting people whose incomes leave them behind the majority of Americans. These are available to freelance journalists in all media, including online, print, radio and broadcast. Since 2021 we have fully or partially funded work on Section 8 housing waiting lists during Covid, rural water districts in Southern Humboldt, and murdered and missing indigenous people in and around Hoopa. Reporting we supported has appeared in the Eureka Times-Standard, Redheaded Blackbelt, KMUD and the Two Rivers Tribune. Journalists interested in applying for a reporting grant must first find a local editor who wants to broadcast or publish their piece. This preliminary acceptance only needs to say the work will be published as long as it meets the outlet’s standards. Applicants can then send us a brief description of the work and explain how it relates to our mission. Put “reporting grant request” in the message line and email it to us at journalism@inkpeople.org with a copy of the preliminary acceptance.
About: The Humboldt Journalism Project is a DreamMaker Project of The Ink People. It is coordinated by Carrie Peyton-Dahlberg and supported by an advisory panel made up of Peyton-Dahlberg, Deidre Pike, Ricardo Sandoval Palos and Zach St. George. All are unpaid volunteers.
Carrie Peyton-Dahlberg is a retired, award-winning journalist who spent 23 years as a reporter and editor of the Sacramento Bee. She has also been editor of the North Coast Journal (2011-2013), and has worked for other newspapers and magazines in California, New York, Germany and the Caribbean. Dr. Deidre Pike is a professor of journalism at Cal Poly Humboldt who has also taught in Hawaii, Nevada and Italy. As a mentor to young journalists, she currently advises the Cal Poly student newspaper, the Lumberjack, and is former director of the Reynolds High School Journalism Institute. Ricardo Sandoval Palos is Public Editor at PBS and managing editor of Palabra, a multimedia platform supporting work by members of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. He has also worked at other national and international media outlets in print and broadcast, and served as board member and president of the Fund for Investigative Journalism. He graduated from then-Humboldt State University in 1981. Zach St. George is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Scientific American, the Atlantic, Smithsonian, USA Today, the San Francisco Chronicle and many others. He is author of “The Journeys of Trees: A Story about Forests, People and The Future.” He graduated from then-HSU in 2012, before earning a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.
Support: The Humboldt Journalism Project’s initial donors have fully funded the first three years of awards. We are seeking donors to support ongoing public interest reporting. Tax deductible contributions can be made to The Ink People, specifying that they are for the Humboldt Journalism Project, a DreamMaker Project of The Ink People.
Need to contact us? Please email journalism@inkpeople.org