The Fund for American Studies announces partnerships with two more publications to support Journalism Excellence Fellowship

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) is continuing the momentum of the recent launch of the Journalism Excellence Fellowship by announcing partnerships with two respected publications, The Economist and The Dispatch. As part of the Journalism Excellence Fellowship, which is a new program to provide promising young journalists the opportunity to work alongside top writers, reporters and media professionals at leading news outlets, The Economist and The Dispatch will each host one Journalism Excellence Fellow on their staffs in 2026. 

The new partnerships with The Economist and The Dispatch complement TFAS’s recent announcement to also develop fellowship programs with the opinion pages of The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. The new Journalism Excellence Fellowships with The Economist and The Dispatch will provide opportunities to specialize in reporting, while fellowships with The Washington Post and The Boston Globe will focus on excellence in opinion writing.

The Journalism Excellence Fellowship, a program of the TFAS Center for Excellence in Journalism, aims to create a new pipeline for elite talent to enter the field of journalism, while also providing rising young journalists the opportunity to undertake important work and receive high-level training in reporting and writing at prestigious news publications early in their careers. 

The new Fellowship builds on the success of the TFAS Center for Excellence in Journalism and its existing programs to advance the field of journalism, including the Joseph Rago Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Journalism, in partnership with The Wall Street Journal; the Robert Novak Journalism Fellowship; the Student Journalism Association; the Media Accelerator Fellowship; and the Campus Transparency Fellowship. 

“At a time when trust in journalism is on the decline and objectivity and facts are often obscured in the regular reporting of news, it’s critical that we provide meaningful career opportunities for rising journalists who seek to return the field to its principled, truth-seeking roots,” said Ryan Wolfe, director of the TFAS Center for Excellence in Journalism. “The Journalism Excellence Fellowship will promote objectivity, balance and fairness in reporting in the nation’s news media by providing world-class training and professional development opportunities for the next generation of talented writers, helping launch them towards successful careers in journalism.”

The selection process for the first class of Fellows is now ongoing. The first Journalism Excellence Fellows will begin their Fellowships with The Economist and The Dispatch in September 2026. For more information, visit TFAS.org/JEF.

The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) is an educational nonprofit that hosts academic internship programs for undergraduate and law students in Washington, D.C., international academic programs in Europe and South America, programs for high school students and teachers, and fellowships for journalists and public policy professionals. For more information on TFAS programs, visit www.DCinternships.org, www.TFASinternational.org or www.FTE.org. For general information about TFAS, visit www.TFAS.org.