McGraw Fellowship for Business Journalism, CUNY

Apply by 4/13: Grants up to $15K for Education Stories that “Follow the Money”

Applications are now open for the Spring 2026 McGraw Fellowships for Business Journalism.  If you have a great idea for a high-impact education story that “Follows the Money” but need funds to get it done, we’d love to hear from you.

The McGraw Fellowships, an initiative of the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, provide experienced journalists with a grant up to $15,000 and the editorial support needed to produce deeply reported enterprise and investigative stories that delve into critical issues related to the economy, finance or business. Given the enormous changes in federal spending and policy priorities now taking place in Washington DC, we are particularly interested in story proposals that examine the impact of these changes. Both freelance and staff journalists in all forms of media with at least five years’ professional experience are eligible. Journalists from diverse backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

The upcoming deadline to apply is April 13, 2026 

Previous McGraw Fellows have explored a wide variety of topics — and you don’t need to be a business reporter to apply. Many have been generalists, or follow beats such as education, health care or the environment. Others focus on inequality or corporate accountability. Here are some examples of their work:

• California’s child farmworkers: Exhausted, underpaid and toiling in toxic fields LA Times
• Science For Sale: How Drugmakers Captured the FDA The Lever
• Clean energy bans skyrocket under Trump USA Today 
• Haitians in Ohio alter daily life, forging new abilities, as immigration chaos grinds on Haitian Times 
• Psychiatric Hospitals Turn Away Patients Who Need Urgent Care. The Facilities Face Few Consequences. ProPublica
• How the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Pivot to Plastic is Polluting Our Planet Scientific American
• ‘They Were Traumatized’: How a Private Equity-Associated Lender Helped Precipitate a Nursing Home Implosion Politico
• Inside the controversial tree farms powering Apple’s carbon neutral goals MIT Tech Review
• Black Farmers and Ranchers: It’s a Dying Deal Center for Public Integrity
• The Problem with PLUS: How Parents Buckle Under the Weight of College Debt US News & World Report
• Private equity sold them a dream of home ownership. They got evicted instead. com
• In Texas, teachers see savings eroded by bad bets on exotic stocks The Street

Have questions about the program or a story idea you’d like to discuss? For further information, go to www.mcgrawcenter.org or contact us at mcgrawcenter@journalism.cuny.edu. We will also hold McGraw Fellowship Office Hours on Zoom at noon EST on Tuesday March 10^th, March 31^st and April 7^th.

The McGraw Center for Business Journalism was established at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in 2014 by the family of the late Harold W. McGraw, Jr., former chairman and CEO of McGraw-Hill and long-time publisher of BusinessWeek magazine. The Center is dedicated to enhancing the depth and quality of business and economic news coverage through training, student scholarships and support for veteran journalists. We accept McGraw Fellowship applications twice a year, in spring and fall. Fall 2026 applications will be due October 12, 2026.

CONTACT:
Jane Sasseen
Executive Director
McGraw Center for Business Journalism
mcgrawcenter@journalism.cuny.edu

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