Skip to main content

2024 Impact Report & 2025 Goal Setting

By January 8, 2025Features

Dear MVJ Members,

As we come to the end of another year of accomplishments and growth at Military Veterans in Journalism, I’d like to reflect proudly on the ways we’ve reconnected and expanded as a community.

In 2024, our fellowship and internship programs brought new partners into the fold alongside long-time partners to provide more opportunities for our members nationwide. These new partners and the success of MVJ members in their fellowships reinforces MVJ and our community as a catalyst for impact in jump-starting career journeys for veterans and military spouses. At the same time, our mentorship program continues to foster relationships that help new and long-time journalists alike navigate the complex and volatile news career landscape.

Our commitment to improving media literacy and encouraging reconnection with positive purpose in the military community remains unwavering. Throughout 2024, our Information Integrity Project team built the foundations to reach even further corners of the military-connected community online. With new support partners and a firm starting point, we anticipate 2025 will see even more impact for this effort.

This year, MVJ set out to conduct comprehensive research around both the number of veterans currently working on newsroom teams and their experiences with getting hired. We spoke to many members of the MVJ community and to newsroom hiring teams and senior news leadership about the hiring process, experiences with veteran talent, and other topics. We found that while the representation of veterans in the media has improved since MVJ began, we still have a long way to go to bridge the representation gap of veterans in America’s newsrooms.

Toward year-end, MVJ24 at the Brooklyn Brewery in New York City brought together MVJ community members and supporters from newsrooms both local and nationwide. This year’s convention discussions fostered new connections and created avenues for understanding among the MVJ community and supporters in attendance, helping MVJ’s members shape the future of military and veteran stories and talent in the journalism industry. In the coming year, we hope to create a new kind of convention experience that’s even more accessible to members and supporters across the country.

This report summarizes the impact MVJ has made in 2024 and highlights our vibrant, supportive community. I give my heartfelt thanks to our members, sponsors and partners for their support in this year’s journey and the possibilities for next year’s. Together, we will continue to provide opportunities for veterans to thrive in and meaningfully contribute to the media industry in 2025.

With gratitude,

Zack Baddorf
Co-Founder / Board Member
Military Veterans in Journalism

Military Veterans in Journalism In Numbers

MVJ’s total number of members as of year-end is 1,104, a growth of 199 (21.9%) new members this year.

We plan to see another 22% of membership growth in 2025 – or 200 new members within the calendar year.

 

A breakdown of MVJ members who have served by military branch:

  • Army: 47.8%
  • Navy: 17.2%
  • Marine Corps: 17% 
  • Air Force: 15.6%
  • Coast Guard: 1.5%
  • National Guard: 1%

MVJ members average 9.94 years of service. 96.3% of our members have served and 18.2% have served in multiple armed forces or in multiple capacities within the armed forces. Of the remainder, 1.6% are military spouses and 2.1% are civilian journalists who support veterans in journalism.

MVJ members identify as follows:

  • White: 62.3%
  • Black or African American: 14.1% 
  • Asian: 4.5% 
  • Native American: 2.8%
  • Native Hawaiian: 0.1% 
  • Other: 6.4%
  • 9.7% of members prefer not to disclose
    their identity.

In addition, 21.4% of our membership identifies as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin.

Our Team

We could not be successful without the dedication of our team – who are predominantly military veterans, military spouses, and military family members.

MVJ has nine Core Team members (listed alphabetically):

  • Caron LeNoir-Kelly, Sword & Pen Podcast Host / Army and Navy Veteran
  • Casandra Burr, Community Engagement Manager
  • Devon Lancia, Partnerships Director / Military Family Member
  • Karolina Wyroba, Finance Manager
  • Marcela Loor, Memberships Coordinator
  • Noelle Wiehe, Member Programs Manager / Army Veteran
  • Rich Dolan, Programs Manager / Army Veteran
  • Sara Feges, Operations Manager / Military Spouse
  • Zack Baddorf, Co-Founder / Navy Veteran

MVJ has six Board of Directors members, three of whom are female and four of whom are people of color (listed alphabetically):

  • Kyra Davenport, Membership Voice Board Member / Army Veteran
  • Lucy Bustamante, Board Member / Military Spouse
  • Priya Sridhar, Board Member / Navy Reservist
  • Ron Nixon, Board Member / Marine Corps Veteran
  • Russell Midori, Board President / Marine Corps Veteran
  • Zack Baddorf, Executive Director / Navy Veteran

2024 Impact

Thanks to generous support from our funders and partners, MVJ offered six fellowship and internship opportunities in newsrooms across the nation this year. Participants were selected by an independent committee made up of journalists across the media spectrum. Please see below for an alphabetical-order listing of this year’s MVJ fellows and interns.

  • Caron LeNoir-Kelly, NBC10 & Telemundo62
  • Christopher Janaro, City Limits
  • Kelsey Baker, The Washington Post
  • Jennifer Lindahl, The Tennessean
  • Marla Bautista, USA Today
  • Max Hauptman, USA Today
  • Tashandra Poullard, the Lexington Herald-Leader

We have also secured another internship spot for a veteran at the Washington Post for Summer 2025 and teamed up with the Wyncote Foundation to offer another six-month fellowship in a Philadelphia newsroom in early 2025.

In March of 2023, MVJ launched a new initiative to improve media literacy and increase trust in media and information within military-connected online spaces. This year, thanks to additional support from Democracy Fund, the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, and the Minnesota-based McKnight Foundation, the MVJ Information Integrity Project team expanded its nonpartisan work dedicated to combating the spread of deceptive narratives and violent extremism in veteran and military communities while reconnecting veterans with positive purpose after service. MVJ also hosted a webinar in April 2024 with expert reporters who’ve covered extremism in the military, which led to the creation of a guide of best practices for reporters working in this beat.

This year, we launched a new series of monthly mentorship spotlight webinars to help members connect. All in all, MVJ hosted 20 career-enhancing events in 2024 in collaboration with our partners and mentors.

  • Webinars:
    • Empowerment Through Storytelling: Writing Trauma-Based Narratives Respectfully with Terace Garnier
    • Introduction to Divided We Fall
    • Narrating Valor: Exploring the Writing of “Send Me” with Marty Skovlund Jr.
    • Introduction to the Institute for Independent Journalists
    • MVJ Counter-Disinformation Panel
    • God, Guns, and Sedition: Terrorism Prevention & Applications for Journalists
    • Google News Initiative Training – Cover the 2024 Elections
    • Veterans Looking Ahead: Discussing the Future of the VA
  • Talent Scout Sessions:
    • Allbritton Journalism Institute
    • Hubbard Broadcasting
    • Sinclair Broadcast Group
    • Spectrum News
    • CUNY Newmark J-School
  • Featured Mentorship Program Cocktail Hour Mentors:
    • David Kishiyama
    • Joshua Skovlund
    • Michael Phelps
    • Russell Midori
    • Lucy Bustamante
    • Blake Miles
    • Lori King 

We continued our Press Pass program all year and issued 16 new passes. The MVJ Press Pass program is our commitment to recognizing our members as working journalists and facilitating their access to sources in their journalistic endeavors.

In early 2025, MVJ will be adding a new facet to our disability inclusion efforts, which began with our previous Ford Disability Inclusion Program. Thanks to a new grant from the Ford Foundation, we will be creating a comprehensive disability narratives guide in collaboration with the Disabled Journalists Association. With this guide, we aim to improve the types of stories being told about disabled communities, including disabled veterans. The guide will be accompanied by an in-depth webinar series once it launches. Keep an eye on the MVJ Blog and Events pages for more information!

In 2021, MVJ received a generous five-year grant from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for improvements to our mentorship program. This year, our team has made improvements to the processes we use to pair military veterans with seasoned journalists who will serve as their mentors, as well as opened up new opportunities for mentors and mentees to connect. Throughout the year, MVJ’s mentorship program recruited one new mentee and four new mentors per month on average for a year-end total of 130 mentors and 225 mentees. There are currently 153 active mentorship pairs in the program.

In late 2023, MVJ received a grant from News Corp Giving to support research on the number of veterans actively working in the news media and any barriers vets may face to industry employment. Although the publication process is ongoing, MVJ has completed the bulk of the research itself. The survey portion of the project gathered 100 responses from veterans working in newsrooms across the country, while the focus group portion brought together hiring professionals, senior newsroom leaders and veterans currently or formerly working in journalism in three groups that shared their perspectives and data that will be useful in teaching newsrooms how to better work with veterans. Additionally, Census data analysis performed as part of the project shows about 3% representation of veterans among newsroom staff members today. Our 2020 analysis of Census data showed only 2% representation in newsroom staff teams. Census data for this subset of Americans (military veterans in journalism) is imperfect given the small sample size. However, we are hopeful this new data represents that the news industry is heading in the right direction, while acknowledging that veterans remain vastly underrepresented, given that American veterans represent about 8% of the population. MVJ will continue our work to get more vets into journalism with this research to guide us in the future.

In the heart of New York City from October 3rd to October 5th, the Military Veterans in Journalism 2024 Convention gathered around 100 attendees for a two-and-a-half day exploration of the importance of the veteran and military spouse voice in the newsroom. With support from 10 sponsors, including major contributors DAV, CNN, the Knight Foundation, NBCUniversal, Spectrum, and others, the event featured 10 diverse workshops and panels, from a discussion of political journalism and the role of vets in politics to panels on military families as news team members, covering veterans of color, and navigating layoffs in a volatile media environment. A two-day, in-person career fair provided veterans with valuable opportunities to connect with potential employers and educational institutions. As MVJ reflects on these dynamic and important discussions, we remain committed to helping create a journalism industry environment where veterans can feel connected and have their voices heard.

2025 Goals

MVJ’s strategic vision for 2025 encompasses four key pillars: general sustainability, the growth of our fellowship offerings, the revision of our convention and sponsorships, the improvement of our skill-building webinars and workshops, and overall organizational development.

General Sustainability. In 2025, MVJ is committed to enhancing general sustainability through:

  • Developing and implementing programs and projects that reduce dependency on one revenue channel and diversify our nonprofit revenue streams.
  • Exploring new avenues for public fundraising and support, including SMS marketing.
  • Strengthening MVJ’s position as a thought leader on military, veteran, military family and disabled veteran reporting.

Growing the MVJ Fellowship Program. Building on the current successes of the fellowship program, we will expand the program in the coming year by:

  • Working with more local newsroom partners to offer opportunities that meet members where they live with affordable wages, especially as the journalism world focuses on bolstering local journalism.
  • Building a network of year-over-year funding partners to ensure ongoing program sustainability.
  • Implementing new ways of measuring program success and fellow growth throughout each fellowship.

Revising Annual Convention and Sponsorships. In 2025, MVJ aims to adjust our annual convention to better meet members’ needs and increase sponsorships through:

  • Working with a fellow affinity group to offer members greater networking opportunities and more affordability in-person
  • Attracting a higher number of participants to MVJ25.
  • Expanding the network of sponsors and partners who attend the in-person convention.
  • Expanding the network of participating newsrooms in the MVJ25 virtual career fair.

General Organizational Growth. MVJ’s commitment to organizational growth in 2025 includes:

  • Refining and expanding existing programs to better serve members.
  • Hosting a minimum of 20 online events throughout the year in collaboration with partners.
  • Introducing innovative initiatives to provide members with even more opportunities.
  • Fostering a dynamic environment that nurtures the professional development of MVJ members.
  • Actively monitoring and assessing the impact of programs on member growth and satisfaction.
  • Exploring and implementing strategies to broaden the scope and reach of existing initiatives.