On Thursday, BuzzFeed announced that it would offer a year-long investigative reporting fellowship exclusively for “journalists of color,” but BuzzFeed is now allowing journalists of “other diverse backgrounds” to apply as well after the website’s editor learned that the original job posting ran afoul of anti-discrimination employment law.
“We had actually gotten confused on employment law — pure fellowships can be targeted this way; but this role includes benefits and a desk and is, legally speaking, a job not a fellowship,” BuzzFeed editor Ben Smith tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an email. The title of the fellowship is now: “BuzzFeed News/Columbia Journalism School Investigative Reporting Fellowship for Journalists of Color And Other Diverse Backgrounds.”
Smith didn’t give any examples of what might count as “other diverse backgrounds,” saying that it is a “deliberately broad and open category.”
“I’d add that we think this is an idiotic interpretation of state employment discrimination law, but that we will absolutely comply with it, and welcome applications from all. We also believe that the original purpose of the fellowship, which is to develop a rich pipeline of investigative reporters of color — something our industry has badly failed to do — is an important and worthy goal,” Smith said. “When we realized this fell under state employment law, of course we complied with it.”
The year-long fellowship, which is being sponsored in partnership with the Columbia journalism school, pays $85,000 plus benefits.
