A 2013 graduate of Grambling State University has been chosen as one of six Reuters-National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) Fellows. Justin Madden is currently the digital breaking news reporter at the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper in Kentucky. While attending Grambling, Madden served as editor-in-chief for The Gramblinite newspaper and president of Grambling’s NABJ chapter. Madden will join the Chicago bureau for Reuters, where he will focus on the agriculture commodities markets.
The program honors rising reporters, recent graduates or business professionals who demonstrate a clear commitment to a career in journalism and an ability to generate story ideas relevant for a Reuters audience, with a focus on multimedia, using text, video and/or graphics.
The paid fellowship program offers up to nine months of hands-on, real-world experience in a Reuters bureau. The fellowship, open to members of the NABJ, is part of the Reuters News Trainee Program, during which participants gain a deep grounding in financial and/or general news reporting, work on fast-paced news stories and develop skills in enterprise journalism.
“The Reuters-NABJ Fellowship is an awesome opportunity for both emerging and veteran journalists to work inside one of the world’s most influential media companies,” said NABJ President Sarah Glover. “From Dakar to Chicago, these fellows will be contributing to a cutting edge news operation, shooting video and reporting the big stories happening across the globe. This NABJ and Reuters partnership will produce great journalism online, in print and on-air. I’m ecstatic about the possibilities for NABJ members at Reuters.”
Madden has won a Kentucky Press Association Award for a hotel explosion in 2014 and anchored a team of reporters that won a McClatchy President’s Award for their aggressive coverage of the NCAA Championship celebrations that showed fans burning couches, fighting and police shooting rubber bullets. He has worked with WKYT-TV, the newspaper’s reporting partner, on stories focused on suicide, heroin and babies born addicted. Madden has interned at Black Entertainment Television (BET) and Columbia Broadcasting Systems (CBS) on the hit show ‘Criminal Minds.’