Sarah Stonbely, the research director at the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, has been named director of Medill’s State of Local News Project.
In that role Stonbely will oversee Medill’s nationally cited research on the growing spread of local news deserts and the emergence of new models to address the crisis. She will work closely with Medill Visiting Professor Penny Abernathy, the pioneer of this local news research, and Tim Franklin, the director of the Medill Local News Initiative.
Stonbely, who received her Ph.D. from New York University in 2015, has been designing, managing and executing local news-related research at the Center for Cooperative Media for more than seven years. Stonbely’s work there has included producing research reports on the effects of changing media ownership, media policy and local news ecosystems. In addition to her work at the center, Stonbely has consulted for the Knight Foundation, held a fellowship at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, and worked as a research associate at Rutgers University.
