New research reveals the scope of news-academic partnerships across the country

In spring of 2025, Researchers at the Center for Community News surveyed over 400 colleges and universities to learn more about news-academic partnerships. 

Key findings

• 172 colleges and universities in the U.S. have an existing or emerging news-academic partnerships today.

• There are 232 total news-academic programs in existence or emerging because some schools now offer multiple programs.

• There are 48 emerging news-academic programs in 2025, a 27% increase over 2024.

• Minority Serving Institutions now run 40 news-academic reporting programs.

• 69% of news-academic reporting programs are at public institutions and 31% are at private institutions.

A more in-depth analysis of this data will be released in August 2025 at the AEJMC Annual Conference. A simplified version of the dataset can be downloaded here.

Please note, this research is a work in progress and subject to change. If you would like to add your program to our database, fill out this form and we will be in touch. To correct or amend any details in this report, contact Sarah Gamard: scbgamard@gmail.com.