Next Generation Radio at Oregon Public Broadcasting 2025
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My Week Reporting with NPR’s Next Gen at OPB

by Nika Bartoo-Smith | Feb 28, 2025 | Nika Bartoo-Smith

I walked into this week a bit intimidated. I am a journalist, but up until a few days ago, I solely worked in a written and photo format. Audio felt scary, but at the same time, so exciting. I grew up listening to OPB in the car with my dad on the way to school....

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

The Next Generation Radio Project is a week-long digital journalism training project designed to give competitively selected participants, who are interested in radio and journalism, the skills and opportunity to report and produce their own multimedia story. Those chosen for the project are paired with a professional journalist who serves as their mentor for that week.

This #NPRNextGenRadio project was sponsored by Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Our journalist/mentors for this project were:

  • Brian Bull, Professor & Reporter, KLCC, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 
  • Ericka Cruz Guevarra, Host of “The Bay”, KQED, San Francisco, CA
  • Paul Marshall II, Radio Host & TV Producer, OPB, Portland, OR
  • Hanna Merzbach, Reporter, Mountain West News Bureau & Wyoming Public Media, Jackson, WY
  • Donald Orr, Announcer & Producer, OPB, Portland, OR

Our staff:

  • Managing Editor – Michelle Faust Raghavan, Founder & Executive Editor, Claridad Media, Portland, OR
  • Associate Managing Editor – Emily Harris, Co-Founder & Director of Community Journalism, Uplift Local, Portland, OR
  • Apprentice Managing Editor – Liz Miller, Education Reporter, OPB, Portland, OR
  • Digital Editors – Venus Edlin, Independent Editor, Portland, OR; Laura Gonzalez, Adjunct Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA; and Alexis L. Richardson, Audience Engagement Editor, Philadelphia, PA
  • Audio Tech/Engineers – Tina Tobey Mack, Freelance Audio Engineer/Sound Designer, Somerville, MA; and Juan Carlos Torrado, Audio Tech, Marketplace, Los Angeles, CA
  • Illustrators – Sophie Barlow, Portland, OR; Yunyi Dai, Los Angeles, CA; and Shideh Ghandeharizadeh, Los Angeles, CA
  • Visual Editors – Kevin Beaty, Denverite, Denver, CO; and Kristyna Wentz-Graff, OPB, Portland, OR

NPR’s Next Generation Radio program is directed by its founder, Doug Mitchell, Consultant, NPR, Washington, D.C.