Two new faces are joining the Source Media Properties in June, doubling our reporting capacity in Ashland and Knox County.
Nathan Hart and Grant Ritchey are joining the Source through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. It is an initiative of The GroundTruth Project, a nonprofit journalism organization.
Hart will cover education and workforce development for Ashland Source. Ritchey will cover education and the growing workforce for Knox Pages.
They are just two of more than 300 journalists in the 2022-23 reporting corps. The cohort, which includes a number of corps members returning for a second or third year, will join the staffs of more than 200 local news organizations across all 50 states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.
Ashland Source and Knox Pages are part of only 11 news organizations in Ohio that are hosting Report for America journalists.
“Report for America provides a unique opportunity for journalists to pursue meaningful, local beat reporting that sadly is missing from many of today’s newsrooms,” said Earl Johnson, director of admissions at Report for America.
“Together, our emerging and experienced corps members will produce tens of thousands of articles on critically under-covered topics — schools, government, healthcare, the environment, communities of color, and more.”
The Ashland Source Report for America position is funded by The Ashland County Community Foundation, including gifts from The Innovation Fund and Bill and Polly Chandler Fund. The Knox Pages Report for America position is funded by the Kokosing Family of Companies. Each community partner has generously pledged nearly $55,000 to support the journalism produced by Report for America Corp Members.
Before joining Ashland Source, Hart worked on Capitol Hill and covered the Texas delegation of Congress for McClatchy DC and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as an intern reporter. Prior to that, he worked in the Ohio statehouse as a statehouse news fellow for Cincinnati-based news station WCPO.
Hart’s journalism career started in high school where he worked on his school’s newspaper and weekly news show. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Ohio University. He is a member of Phi Betta Kappa and Kappa Tau Alpha, both academic honor societies for college students.
In his free time, Hart enjoys playing video games, performing stand-up comedy, and going to social events.
“I’m looking forward to getting to know Ashland and the region and I’m excited for this opportunity to make a positive impact on the community,” Hart said.
Prior to joining Knox Pages, Ritchey was a general assignment reporter for the Ashland Times-Gazette, for which he reported and wrote features on sex trafficking, catalytic converter thefts, county and local government, crime, courts, new businesses, and on important and overlooked members of the community.
While enrolled at Ohio University, Ritchey worked at the student-run news publication, The Post. There, he gained experience in meeting coverage, breaking news, investigative reporting, and feature writing.
Ritchey also interned at The Borgen Project, a nonprofit that addresses global poverty, where he wrote reports on internet access, clean drinking water and the steps being taken toward solving those issues.
“I’m eager to report on the growing workforce in Knox County, especially with the announcement of Intel expanding to Ohio,” Ritchey said. “I’m also excited to work alongside experienced and veteran journalists, too.”
Help us support independent local journalism by investing in the Knox Pages and Ashland Source Report for America project. Your contribution will generate impact, give your community a voice, and drive greater civic participation.
