No Nieman for the Globe; no conspiracy either

Published May 24 2007, 10:14 PM by Adam Reilly

Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism announced its 2007-2008 fellows yesterday, and for the second straight year, there's no Globe reporter on the list. (Disclosure: in the '90s, I spent two very enjoyable years as an editorial assistant at Nieman Reports.)

What to make of this snub? As one Media Log reader noted, the Globe's Nieman yield has dropped since the paper's February 2005 story detailing criticisms of current Nieman curator Bob Giles. Charlie Sennott made the cut in 2005; since then, nada.

Upon closer examination, though, this actually isn't that unusual. Yeah, Globe reporters had a great run from 2000-2005, nabbing a Nieman spot every year. (For those keeping score at home, that would be Don Aucoin, Matt Brelis, Kevin Cullen, Indira Lakshmanan, Richard Chacon, and Sennott, in that order.) But no Globies made the cut in '99 or '98, or in '96, or in '94.

From the Globe's point of view, meanwhile, the current cold spell may not be a bad thing. The Nieman Foundation is a great place, but reporters who spend the year there have a striking tendency to get better jobs elsewhere after the fact.