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We learned this morning that the John S. Knight Journalism Fellowships at Stanford University selected Voice of San Diego editor Andrew Donohue to be one of its 20 fellows for the 2012-13 academic year.
The fellowship is built around fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership in journalism.
“Each year, we give 20 outstanding individuals from around the world the resources to pursue and test their ideas for improving the quality of news and information reaching the public. We work closely with them, to help them make the most of the amazing creativity and entrepreneurial spirit that are synonymous with Stanford University and Silicon Valley,” according to the program’s website.
Donohue plans to create sustainable investigative news projects built around crowd-sourcing, transparency and narrative storytelling. He’ll also take classes at the university. The fellowship begins Sept. 1.
VOSD will spend the next few months crafting a new leadership structure for the organization. After Sept. 1, Donohue will leave his full-time position as editor and continue to advise VOSD in a contributing editor role on a contract basis.
I’ve collaborated closely with Donohue for many years, so the news is bittersweet. A big transition will occur but the fellowship is both a tremendous honor for Donohue and for Voice of San Diego.
While replacing him will be a challenge, he has institutionalized his passion for excellence and his judgment when it comes to news, values and ethics.
We have some time and a chance to build on the foundation of credibility he established. And he’ll remain in our circle as a writer, editor and advisor.
We’ll share more with you as we go about making these decisions and learn from Donohue’s experiences at Stanford.
I’m Scott Lewis, the CEO of Voice of San Diego. You can contact me or Andrew at scott.lewis@voiceofsandiego.org and andrew.donohue@voiceofsandiego.org.