LOCAL NEWS
Let's reform journalism together.
At Zenger House, we want to build a community of Christian journalists who seek to glorify God and reform local journalism in their communities. We want to see believers filling in the gaps left behind as journalism shifts towards big cities or national and international news.
With newspaper closures and buyouts, news deserts and journalism brain drains, who will tell the local story? Who will report on the news happening down the street, the overlooked stories, the issues that touch our everyday lives?
Well, why not you?
We want to help you start a news website for your city or neighborhood.
Why Local News?
We see a need for more local news groups that inform, educate, and inspire readers and listeners. We believe Christians can help their cities and neighborhoods by combining pavement-pounding reporting with biblical objectivity: That means approaching an issue confidently when the Bible is clear, skeptically when it is not, and always humbly, since we are sinners writing about sinners.
What We Do
We taught an intensive, five-day course at Union University in August 2022, covering everything from news reporting to sports journalism to crime and investigative journalism, along with instruction on business aspects of local journalism. We plan to teach another course, either in person or by Zoom, when we have chosen ten entrepreneurial Christian journalists who are ready and willing to start local news websites. Zenger House covers tuition and other workshop-related costs for for participants.
How to Apply
Send us an email showing your background, interests, goals, and entrepreneurial experience. If we think Zenger House's coaching on local news could be useful to you, we'll ask you to fill out an application for admission to our next course.
Let's reform journalism...
one journalist and one community at a time.
Meet the Team
Marvin & Susan Olasky
Lead Instructors
Marvin Olasky is a Discovery Institute Senior Fellow and an Acton Institute Affiliate Scholar. He edited World from 1992 to 2021 and was a professor, provost, chairholder, and dean at The University of Texas at Austin, The King’s College, Patrick Henry College, and the World Journalism Institute from 1983 to 2021. He is the author of 28 books including The Tragedy of American Compassion, Fighting for Liberty and Virtue, Abortion Rites, Reforming Journalism, and Lament for a Father.
Susan Olasky was previously a feature writer, book reviewer, and story coach at World. She wrote and voiced radio features for The World and Everything in It. She is the author of the Annie Henry and Will Northaway series of novels for children. Susan founded the Austin Crisis Pregnancy Center in 1984 and later chaired the board of CareNet, the national umbrella group for pregnancy resource centers. The Olaskys have been married for 45 years and have four sons and five grandchildren.
Katie Gaultney
Project Manager
Katie Gaultney is a Dallas-based journalist. Her experience runs the gamut from parade planning to speechwriting; earning her master’s degree in liberal studies; and becoming a mom of four. Gaultney contributes to World News Group as a senior correspondent. She is vice chairman of the board of Coram Deo Academy, the largest classical school. She and her husband of 15 years, Brad, serve in marriage ministry at their church, Watermark.
J.C. Derrick
Instructor
J.C. Derrick is the publisher for Mainstreet Daily News, a local news outlet in Gainesville, Fla. He spent 18 years covering sports, education, and politics in Texas and Washington, D.C., before joining Mainstreet in 2020. J.C. has been published in dozens of outlets, including The Washington Post and World, and appeared on a range of radio and television networks, including C-SPAN and EWTN. He lives in Orlando with his wife and three young children.
Angela Lu Fulton
Organizer
Angela Lu Fulton is the Southeast Asia editor at Christianity Today. She was previously managing editor, senior reporter, and East Asia correspondent at World magazine. In 2018 and 2019, she taught and organized World Journalism Institute courses in East Asia. She lives with her husband and young son in Columbus, Ohio.
Watching clunky first drafts forged again and again into tight, bracing prose transformed my writing and inspired me to greater success as a writer. I was also impressed by the high-caliber students in the course, men and women who loved the Lord and were serious about improving their craft.
I draw from what I learned on a weekly basis. It was a practical exercise in how to think, write, and edit like a journalist. As a small class, we walked through each step of writing and were able to make mistakes, correct them, throw out ideas, and bounce questions off expert journalists. The mountain of journalism became a hill I could climb.
I am a registered nurse who is thoroughly frustrated with opinion news which leads my patients astray in the middle of the worst health crisis of my lifetime. If ever there was a time for truth-filled reporting in the Christian world, it is now.