The AmNews is excited to welcome Ariama C. Long as our first Report for America Corps member. Ariama, a talented journalist who has been covering Brooklyn politics, will join the Amsterdam News in June and will spend the next year covering politics, City Hall and local government. And our readers have an amazing opportunity to support her important reporting.
“It’s important to me to reach out to the communities I’ve come from and elevate as many of those voices as I can. People respond and are moved to action when they feel heard,” Ariama said.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, she graduated from the CUNY Newmark School of Journalism in 2018 having studied audio, arts, and culture reporting and photography. She told us that her grandfather, who still reads the AmNews, helped instill in her a deep desire to always be informed and curious about the world around her.
With an exciting Democratic Party mayoral primary as well as City Council, borough president and other races happening this year, Ariama’s coverage will be essential to our work of keeping Black New Yorkers informed so they can exercise their right to vote. Each week our readers will learn more about those vying to represent them as well as how they are changing city government once elected.
Report for America is paying half of Ariama’s salary and the AmNews is asking our community to help us raise the other half by making a tax deductible donation here: https://checkout.fundjournalism.org/memberform?org_id=reportforamerica&campaign=7015G000001Z0dC&theme=New+York+Amsterdam+News&installmentPeriod=once
We need to raise $20,000 over the coming months to help pay for this essential work and as publisher and editor-in-chief I hope that our readers and community will step up and continue the support they have shown since our founding in 1909.
We are excited to be one of more than 200 news organizations around the United States who will be hosting a Corps Member. Report for America is a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities. Launched in 2017, Report for America is creating a new, sustainable system that provides Americans with the information they need to improve their communities, hold powerful institutions accountable, and rebuild trust in the media.