Senior Regan Mertz of Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, is a 2021 RJI Student Innovation Fellow. She plans to work with The Oregonian/Oregon Live to formulate a broad story idea for the summer that she will tell through long-form narrative podcast episodes. She will also be creating newsletters and social media campaigns, as well as assisting with revenue generating projects and other Oregonian podcasts.

“I am hoping to take away skills on novel podcast storytelling techniques, engaging ways to promote that podcast and how to generate story ideas and research background information in a new place,” she says. 

“Our current podcast offerings are episodic and news-based,” said Karly Imus, director of audience development at the Oregonian, a newsroom partner. “Regan’s podcast will be a multi-episode project, telling one story from start to finish. We’re excited to see how our audience responds to this format.”