Tribune reporter accepts yearlong investigative fellowship

We are proud to share that Leia Larsen, land and water reporter at The Salt Lake Tribune, is a Local Investigations Fellow with The New York Times.

Larsen will join The Times for one year, reporting on how environmental policies and proposals set forth by the Utah Legislature impact Utahns.

Since Larsen joined The Tribune nearly four years ago, her reporting has consistently made change. She’s reported on plans to dredge Utah Lake and build homes on islands in the lake. Those plans failed. She’s reported on how water gets lost on its way to the Great Salt Lake and what individuals and farmers can do to help save the lake.

The fellowship program is led by Dean Baquet, former executive editor of The New York Times, and it supports journalists as they work to publish investigative work focused on the state from which they’re reporting. Larsen’s reporting will be shared by The Tribune and The Times.

“It has been so rewarding to help reporters turn their ideas into stories and to produce work that has a huge local impact,” Baquet said in a Times announcement. “It has also been exciting to work closely with newsrooms across the country, to see how many of them are doing great coverage sometimes against the odds.”

The Tribune will work with journalists in our newsroom and contract with those who have expertise in water-related reporting as Larsen focuses on this effort over the next year, ensuring we continue to be a leader in an area of critical importance for Utah.

This year’s fellows come from Illinois, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Texas, California, Utah and Virginia. All will report from the communities where they live.

The Times introduced the fellowship program to help develop the next generation of reporters to publish accountability journalism at a local level.

To read reporting from current Local Investigations Fellows, click here.

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