Sara Maloney will be the first full-time reporter for The Eudora Times.
Sara Maloney has been selected for a national journalism fellowship that will allow The Eudora Times to become a full-time newsroom starting in August.
Maloney, who has covered education and senior citizens for the Times for the past year, found out Tuesday that she is a recipient of the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism fellowship.
The competitive program selects early career journalists from around the nation and places them in newsrooms to help them build skills for long careers in journalism.
Maloney, who graduates with a journalism degree from KU next month, chose The Eudora Times as the host site of her fellowship.
“During the last year, I have found a great passion and love for community journalism and, more specifically, the Eudora community,” Maloney said. ”I wasn’t ready to leave behind this newsroom, and I’m so excited to dedicate my full time to it after graduation.”
Publisher Teri Finneman said she is thrilled to keep Maloney on the team. The Eudora Times reporters are journalism students at KU who normally leave the newspaper after they graduate.
“Sara cares so much about providing good journalism to Eudora and deserves this amazing opportunity,” Finneman said. “We’ve worked for four years to grow the Times to be nationally recognized as an important model for community journalism.”
Maloney, born and raised in Overland Park, is also the co-editor in chief of the University Daily Kansan for the spring semester. She found a passion for news when she joined her high school’s newspaper staff, and she credits her adviser for helping her find a love for journalism.
Maloney is excited to graduate from KU in May but is thankful for her time as a student journalist. In her free time, she loves antiquing, shopping for houseplants and going to coffee shops.
“I am incredibly grateful to Poynter and to Dr. Finneman for supporting me in my continued work at the Times,” Maloney said. “The opportunities I have had here shaped what it means to do great journalism and help a community receive a service they needed so desperately.”
The Times will cost-share the new full-time position that will have Maloney working about 40 hours per week between August 2023 and April 2024.
Finneman said all of the donations and support from the community, Dean Ann Brill and Journalism School alumni the past four years, along with the dedication of the Times’ founding reporters Riley Wilson, Lucie Krisman, Cami Koons, Sydney Hoover and Chris Fortune, made it possible for the newspaper to reach this point.
“A newspaper is so important to a local community, and it will be exciting to see how much more The Times can do with more regular staffing,” Finneman said. “We need continued support from the community during this new venture to sustain it.”
The Times will close from May 1 to June 5 to preserve funding for this new opportunity, although sports editor Jack Denebeim will take photos and video from regional and state spring sports.
Maloney will do a summer internship at the Times in June and July before officially starting her fellowship in August. Denebeim will also have an internship at The Times this summer and return to the staff in the fall with some other members of the student team.
The Eudora Times is 100% donation funded. If you would like to make a donation to support us and continue our growth, you can send a check made out to KU Endowment with Eudora Times in the memo line to
Teri Finneman
1435 Jayhawk Blvd
Stauffer-Flint Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045
Or you may make an online donation here.