Local News Network
The Local News Network at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism aids news outlets throughout Maryland by creating important localized news content and by teaming those news outlets with student reporters.
Merrill College launched the Local News Network in the summer of 2022 thanks to an anchor commitment from the Andrew and Julie Klingenstein Family Fund. The college created the Local News Network to strengthen local news coverage throughout Maryland while providing students with invaluable experience in local news reporting.
Award-winning journalist Jerry Zremski leads the Local News Network. Zremski was the Washington bureau chief for The Buffalo News from 2007-2022 and a reporter for the publication since 1984. He spent two stints as a Merrill adjunct lecturer before joining the full-time faculty.
Zremski serves as lead instructor for a midlevel reporting course focused on beat reporting. Every semester, dozens of Merrill students who take that course take part in a project that aims to provide important content to support overtaxed Maryland news outlets.
The Local News Network also offers an internship program that provides stipends to several students each summer to intern at a local news outlet. Students typically pursue those internships after their sophomore or junior year. The stipends cover living expenses and summer tuition credits.
Follow the Local News Network on Twitter @LNNMaryland. For more information on the Local News network, email Jerry Zremski at jzremski@umd.edu.
More on the Local News Network
Projects
Maryland Board of Education Voter Guide (October 2022)
With schools in Maryland facing issues ranging from pandemic-related learning losses to safety, the Local News Network at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism sent a questionnaire to all 155 school board candidates to get their views on important issues ahead of the 2022 midterm election. The results were published in their entirety by Capital News Service with candidates organized by county. Reporters followed up with multiple stories on trends that showed up in the results of the questionnaire.
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