Joanne Zuckerman Bernstein with Spotlight PA and Julie Sidoni of WVIA will discuss the daunting challenges and creative solutions used by today’s news organizations to maintain an informed citizenry. Spotlight PA (statewide) and WVIA (locally) are trying to fill the void left by declining local newspapers. The loss of local news has significant political, social, and economic implications for our democracy and our society. Yet according to the Pew Research Center, almost three-quarters of the public remain unaware of the dire economic situation confronting local news organizations.

Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein was an Eagles Mere summer resident in her youth She is the deputy director of Spotlight PA, an award-winning nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism about state house and statewide issues in Pennsylvania. She joined Spotlight PA in 2019, and has led myriad initiatives since the newsroom’s launch, from effectively building local and national support for Spotlight PA’s public-service journalism, to expanding the newsroom’s partnerships and creating its civic events program. She currently leads Spotlight PA’s fundraising team. Joanna received her BA from Columbia University and has a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where she was a Stabile Investigative Fellow. She worked as a Reuters foreign correspondent in Mexico City, and she was part of a team at the Miami Herald chosen as a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting. She has also held fundraising and communications roles at nonprofit organizations in Mexico City, New York, and Chicago.

Julie Sidoni is the news director at WVIA, the PBS NPR affiliate in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania, serving 22 counties. She is responsible for overseeing local journalism on all of WVIA’s television, radio, and online platforms as well as leading the station’s investment in local journalism. Prior to joining WVIA, Julie was a producer at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh before graduating from Duquesne University, then landed her first on-air television reporting job at WJAC-TV in Johnstown, PA. A year and a half later, she was hired as a reporter for WNEP-TV in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and has spent nearly 20 years there as an anchor/reporter.

Joanna Zuckerman Bernstein

Julie Sidoni