The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting is proud to announce that it will partner with news organizations across the country to offer 17 investigative reporting internships to collegiate journalists and recent college graduates during the summer of 2025.
This reflects an increase of six internships from 2024, and that number could grow before the selection process concludes. Two of the internships will be exclusively remote.
The internship places students in paid 10-12 week assignments working alongside investigative reporters and editors at some of the nation’s top news organizations. Students from traditionally underrepresented groups and those attending HBCUs and MSIs are especially encouraged to apply.
The Society will enjoy partnerships with eight returning news organizations and nine new ones.
The 2025 internship sites include renewed partnerships with:
- The Associated Press
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
- Indianapolis Star
- Los Angeles Times
- Miami Herald
- The New York Times
- USA TODAY
- The Washington Post
New partnerships include:
- The New York Amsterdam News, the first Black Press partner in the internship program’s history.
- Bloomberg News, one of the largest business news organizations on earth with more than 2,700 journalists in more than 100 global bureaus and headquartered in New York, NY.
- The Current, a nonprofit accountability news organization serving the coastal region of Georgia, including Savannah, Brunswick and other communities. It is a part of the Scripps Howard Fund nonprofit newsroom internship program in partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News.
- Dallas Morning News, one of the nation’s top paid-circulation and award-winning newspapers.
- The Kansas City Star, an award-winning daily that is part of the McClatchy news group.
- Louisville Courier-Journal, a celebrated award-winning newspaper in Kentucky, which is part of the Gannett/USA TODAY Network.
- The Maine Monitor, an independent digital publication of the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, which focuses on investigative and explanatory journalism that impacts residents of that state. It is a part of the Scripps Howard Fund nonprofit newsroom internship program in partnership with the Institute for Nonprofit News.
Two internships will be remote:
- The Examination, a globally based independent nonprofit news organization that investigates preventable health threats and seeks to empower communities adversely impacted by harmful industrial products and practices. Its team of journalists is dispersed in such locations as Houston, New York City, Chicago, Mexico City, London, Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and parts of California and the Midwest.
- Snopes, a fact-checking digital site and internet reference source that researches urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.
Applications close at 11:59 p.m. ET on Friday, January 10, 2025. Selections will be announced in early March.
Application Requirements
Applicants must be members of the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting. Join for free at this link.
Rising college juniors, seniors and graduate students, as well as individuals who graduated from college within the past three years with multimedia journalism skills, including print and broadcasting are welcome to apply.
Candidates should be actively involved in campus media or have other news reporting experience and a demonstrated desire to incorporate investigative reporting techniques into their work as they aspire to advance their careers.
The application requires a cover letter, a resume, five work samples and two letters of recommendation from individuals who can speak about your journalistic abilities and would be willing to answer any follow-up questions from the selection committee.
Got Questions? Join Us For An Info Session
Want to make your application stand out? Got questions you’d like answered? Learn more about the internship and the application process through our informational session in early December. Make sure you follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and are a registered member to receive email notifications on this session.
Check out these frequently asked questions about the internships.
Past Interns
The 2023 cohort of investigative interns attended a boot camp in Atlanta prior to the internships starting; several attended the National Association of Black Journalists 2023 Convention as interns. They are pictured here with Society co-founder Nikole Hannah-Jones.
Past interns have participated in prize-winning reporting projects and have gone on to establish professional careers.
Tami Oshikanlu interned at The Washington Post in summer 2024. Her hard work during the summer earned her an extended opportunity with the news organization.
“My internship exceeded my expectations. I thoroughly enjoyed my time at The Post, and I believe the newsroom culture and location worked perfectly for me. I am incredibly grateful to the Ida B. Wells Society for taking a chance on me and providing this opportunity. I have learned more in the past four months than I have throughout my entire time in journalism.“
Donovan Thomas interned at The New York Times in summer 2021. His work was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning effort. He began his career as a reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I did not think that I would be able to land a full-time reporting position in a newsroom like the AJC directly after graduating (in May 2022). I was prepared to go to grad school … However, because of the experience I gained with the help of the IBWS, the AJC felt more comfortable offering me a position covering a complex and important beat.”
Dedicated to increasing and retaining reporters and editors of color in investigative journalism, the Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting was founded in 2016 by four prize-winning Black journalists – Nikole Hannah-Jones of The New York Times; Ron Nixon of the Associated Press, Topher Sanders of ProPublica, and Corey Johnson, who also now works for ProPublica. The Society is named for the muckraking journalist and civil rights champion, who courageously exposed through her reporting the scourge of lynching to a national and international audience.
The Society is open to journalists of all races who support its mission and work.
