Want to Lead Bold Change in Your Newsroom? Start Here
MTC’s Executive Leadership Fellowship is your next big move.
Applications are now open for the 2026 cohort of Media Transformation Challenge (MTC) Executive Leadership Fellowship, an intensive, year-long executive program designed to help media professionals drive performance-based change in their organizations.
Founded as the Sulzberger Program at Columbia University in 2007, the program transitioned to Media Transformation Challenge in 2019, continuing its mission of strengthening leadership capacity across the journalism industry.
“What differentiates MTC from other programs is that it’s challenge-driven,” Co-Founder and Executive Director Charlie Baum explained in a recent virtual information session with prospective applicants. “The heart of the fellowship is your performance challenge—an ambitious, high-stakes project you lead within your organization over the year.”
MTC Fellows attend five in-person sessions for the program, each combining strategy development, leadership coaching, and peer collaboration. The fellowship supports participants in identifying and pursuing measurable, mission-aligned outcomes that can shift the trajectory of their organization.
During the session, MTC alumni and current coaches offered personal insights into the program’s design, scope, and impact.
Danyelle White, MTC Coach, Alum, and Chief Content Officer at The Salt Lake Tribune, described her 2022 performance challenge: transforming audience engagement after major structural shifts, including the Tribune’s move to nonprofit status. “What I thought would be a one-year project turned into a multi-year transformation,” she said. “The foundational tools of MTC still guide our work today.”
MTC Coach and two-time Alum Amanda Barrett, Vice President of Standards and Inclusion at The Associated Press, shared how her MTC coach helped her develop two major initiatives—an internal global planning system and an inclusive storytelling program. “My coach helped me shift from a newsroom mindset to a business mindset,” she said. “That made a huge difference.”
Coaching plays a central role in the fellowship. Each participant is paired with a dedicated coach who helps them shape their challenge, stay on track, and tap into MTC’s extensive network of over 430 alumni. “We’re not just learning—we’re executing, testing, and iterating in real time,” said Baum.
Benjamin Wagner, MTC Director of Community Engagement (and a 2014 Alum), emphasized the value of the alumni network. “It’s not just a one-year experience—it’s a lifelong community,” he said. “The support doesn’t end when the sessions do.”
In the Q&A, participants asked about the types of challenges that work best (ambitious but achievable), funding options (scholarships are available, especially for local newsrooms), and what to expect from the sessions (strategic planning, coaching, and plenty of collaboration).
The MTC Executive Leadership Fellowship runs from January 2026 to January 2027. Applications for the 2026 cohort are open here now through October. Accepted Fellows will be notified by November.
Prospective fellows can watch the entire information session below, or scroll for specific deep dives per the following timecode:
- 00:00 – Introduction & Agenda (Benjamin Wagner)
- 1:00 – Program Overview (Charlie Baum)
- 11:00 – Fellowship Experience & Program Timeline (Danyelle White)
- 20:00 – The Coaching Experience (Amanda Barrett)
- 30:00 – The Alumni Experience (Benjamin Wagner)
- 32:30 – Q&A
- 33:00 – Performance Challenge Examples
- 36:30 – Fellowship Day-to-Day
- 43:30 – Program Value to Journalism Support Orgs
- 46:30 Tuition support
- 55:30 – End