Dart Society

Some of us lost our jobs. Some of us took buyouts and endured unpaid fake-cations. Some of us retired. Some of us learned how to file for unemployment, to get our own insurance, to borrow money we couldn't easily repay. We already knew what it was like to feel worthless, getting cropped and over-edited and sent back out there to do some more "meaningful" work. Those of us who still had jobs waited for the deafening silence of our own cake wakes – that is, if the newsroom was still springing for the cake. Journalism in the U.S. lost nearly 15,000 jobs this year, according to today's Paper Cuts tally, more than any other sector. Those papers and stations that didn't fold, the newsrooms we totally grew up in, weren't places many of us wanted to be anymore.

Journalists in the Dart Society, however, didn't have a choice. They had to keep doing this work. It started with Natalie Pompilio getting laid off by the Philadelphia Inquirer; to Tina Croley, who took a buyout from the Detroit Free Press; to Mike Walter, whose contract at WUSA-TV was not renewed; to Melissa Manware Treadaway, who left the Charlotte Observer; to Moni Basu and Jan Winburn, who left the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and now work at CNN; to Devin Robins, who was laid off from NPR but enrolled in journalism workshops and stayed in broadcasting; to Ruth Teichroeb, whose newspaper, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, imploded; to Kim Komenich, who packed up his Pulitzers and retired from the San Francisco Chronicle; to Karyn Spencer, who turned pro as an investigator for the federal public defender's office of Nebraska, leaving the Omaha World-Herald but not Omaha.

What are they doing now?

Natalie helped in the rebuilding of New Orleans, has written a couple books, and launched a successful freelance career. Tina Croley moved to North Carolina and serves on the board of the Dart Society. Mike Walter started his own production company and has worked on videos for the Foundation of California Community Colleges and the National Rehabilitation Hospital. He won multiple awards for "Breaking News, Breaking Down," which the Dart Society sponsored, and he's working on another documentary. Melissa Manware Treadaway writes grants for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and is running races. Ruth Teichroeb is now communications manager with Pew's Arctic Program. Kim Komenich is teaching at San Jose State University.

The kind of work these journalists did required them to put their souls on the line to make sure they told stories right. They fought to do the stories. They fought to get the stories published. When change happened as a result of their work, and awareness, it seemed like the newsroom battles were worth it. Losing their ability to continue working in daily journalism was hard on their communities, but it was hardest on them.
Dart journalists are a different breed. They survive. They use their support and get back on the path of excellence one way or another. It's a calling. They've bedded down in refugee camps, drunk polluted water, held dying children, feared for their lives and those of their family members.

The Dart Society Board of Directors in 2009 created a strategic plan that fortified the nonprofit's mission, set substantial goals to achieve over the next five years, and provided outreach to its journalists during the news industry's crisis. With the help of Frank Ochberg, M.D., Bruce Shapiro of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, and the broader Dart community, the society forged connections with caring people and organizations, gathered to inspire and to dream, and always came away better off for being together.

Here are some of our accomplishments in 2009:

1. Strategic Planning
This effort was launched in late 2008 after seeing the benefits of careful planning for the Dart Center. Working closely with Bernard Consulting Group, Inc., the society board assembled a plan to grow more independently of the Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship Program; to develop fund-raising initiatives; to identify the appropriate mix of management and governance; and probably most exciting, to explore launching an online magazine that will feature what is emerging as the Dart brand of journalism.

2. The Dart Society's Reunion of Ochberg Fellows
The Dart Society brought together 60 fellows and Dart community members to celebrate 10 years of the Dart Center Ochberg Fellowship Program. The three-day event in August in Indianapolis showcased amazing work by Dart journalists and cemented the organization's commitment to the compassionate coverage of victims and trauma – and to the bonds the fellows continue to forged with one another. A slate of seven programs were presented at the Society of Professional Journalists convention, which the Dart Society helped sponsor.

3. Dart Fellows Photography Show
The exhibit features works by the photographers of the Dart Society and was unveiled in Indianapolis at the LCi Gallery. It is a permanent, traveling show based on Frank Ochberg's theory, "Trauma in Three Acts." Kim Komenich, a Pulitzer Prize photographer formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, curated the exhibit, with help from John Trotter and Deirdre Stoelzle Graves. A schedule of showings is being prepared for 2010.

4. The 2009 Mimi Award
The 2009 Mimi Award winner was Jan Winburn of CNN.com. Formerly of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, she was nominated by reporters Moni Basu, Michelle Hiskey, Lisa Pollock and Mike Ollove. Honorable mention was Clara Germani of the Christian Science Monitor, who was nominated by Jina Moore, who received an Ochberg Fellowship in 2009. The winners and nominators were brought to the Indianapolis symposium and honored at a dinner. We expect them to make great additions to the society.

5. Project Invictus: The Future of Journalism
The Dart Society initiated a new project, Invictus, to provide professional outreach and peer support to fellows and colleagues in their hometowns and to bolster commitment to the coverage of violence and tragedy during this unstable time in the journalism industry. Gatherings were held in Miami; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Baltimore; Denver; Delray Beach, Fla.; and Atlanta.

6. Nieman Dart: "Aftermath"
The Dart Society joined with the Nieman Foundation and the Dart Center to present a two-day conference, "Aftermath: Journalism, Storytelling, and the Impact of Violence and Tragedy," at Harvard University. Two dozen Dart Center Ochberg Fellows attended, nearly half of whom delivered presentations on the coverage of victims and disasters. The conference presentations were transcribed and published in the most recent edition of Nieman Reports. 

7. Breaking News, Breaking Down
Mike Walter's documentary, "Breaking News, Breaking Down," was premiered in April at the Washington, D.C., International Film Festival, and screenings followed throughout the U.S. and the world, including at SPJ, in Australia, with Gary Tippet, and in Sweden, with Lena Jakobsson. This documentary shows the toll taken on journalists covering the most difficult stories of our time, with special emphasis on the Dart Society's project in New Orleans in 2007. It is a landmark film for Dart. 

8. Stanford-Knight Center partnership initiative
2002 Fellow Ruth Teichroeb, also a 2008 Knight fellowship recipient, met with Frank Ochberg and Knight Center leaders in March to discuss a role for the Dart Society in the Knight fellowship. It is likely fellows will conduct a presentation for Knight fellows on the coverage of trauma.

9. Investigative Reporters & Editors Conference (IRE)
The Dart Society's Miles Moffeit, Ruth Teichroeb, Kristen Lombardi, Karyn Spencer and Mike Walter gave presentations at the IRE conference in Baltimore, including a screening of Walter's documentary, "Breaking News, Breaking Down." 

10. Center for Public Integrity
2003 Fellow Kristen Lombardi received a grant from The Dart Society through Media Innovations to produce a year-long project on the investigation and adjudication of sexual assaults on college campuses. The investigation resulted in a multimedia work published by the Center for Public Integrity and the Dart Society. 

11. Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma
2004 Fellow Kari Rene Hall was selected to participate in the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. She is the second fellow to do so: Paul McEnroe completed the 2008-09 program, which is directed by trauma psychiatrist Richard Mollica, M.D., of Harvard. 

12. Eyewitness Project
2007 Fellow Margarita Akhvlediani is working on a video project focusing on traumatized people. The grant from The Dart Society through Media Innovations was used to purchase video equipment for the team. 

13. Fellow Travelers
2007 Fellow Jim MacMillan joined with fellows in Australia (Gary Tippet and Lisa Millar) and New Zealand (Jon Stephenson) to give presentations on the coverage of trauma and violence.

14. International Growth
The Dart Society contributed $3,000 to Dart Centre Australasia's efforts in to train journalists and form a third cohort of "DOGs" (Dart Opal Group). The society continues to maintain connections with its international cadre, which now includes fellows from Latin America, Canada, the Caribbean, Australia, Europe, and the Caucusus.