Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard

The Nieman Foundation houses a dynamic set of initiatives to promote and elevate the standards of journalism and educate and support those poised to make important contributions to its future. We do this through our fellowship programs; our publications, online and in-print; and programming that convenes some of the leading thinkers of our time.

Nieman began as a fellowship for select journalists to spend an academic year at Harvard in pursuit of individual study plans to strengthen their knowledge and leadership skills. That program recently celebrated its 75th anniversary; more than 1,400 journalists from nearly 100 countries have been awarded Nieman fellowships since 1938. Recently we added a short-term visiting fellowship for individuals with a specific project to enhance journalism who would like to spend up to 12 weeks at Harvard advancing their idea. Visiting fellows have included digital innovators, technologists, academics, and journalists from the U.S. and abroad.

For both groups of fellows, Harvard and Nieman offer the rare gift of time to think, learn, plan and create in a rigorous academic environment. Following their work on campus, our fellows have gone on to assume senior leadership positions in newsrooms, produce groundbreaking journalism in every medium, launch entrepreneurial projects, and win the industry’s top honors.

Nieman is the only fellowship program that also houses an array of publishing and convening initiatives focused on journalism. These include:

• Nieman Lab, an online reporting enterprise focused on the future of news and innovation;

• Nieman Reports, a website and print quarterly that explores contemporary journalism’s most important challenges and provides a forum for the industry’s leading voices on issues of ethics, values, innovation and more;

• Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism and the art and craft of reported storytelling.