Sarah Stonbely

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT SARAH STONBELY

Sarah Stonbely (Ph.D, New York University, 2015) is a senior research fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, where she conducts research about the local civic information landscape and builds systems to inform philanthropic efforts, scholars, and industry.Sarah\'s research lens takes a broad view of civic information, which includes local journalism as well as vital information produced by schools, libraries, and other nonprofits. She works with colleagues to map civic information landscapes using a variety of AI-driven methods to allow greater visibility into this vital sector.Prior to the Tow Center Stonbely served as the director of the State of Local News Project at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. There, she managed the effort to map and assess the state of local journalism across the country for the 2023 annual report. From 2015 to 2024, Sarah served as the research director for the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University, where she produced white papers and research reports on collaborative journalism, the effects on content of changing media ownership, media policy, ethnic and community media, and the structural correlates of local news provision. She also lead impact evaluation for the New Jersey Civic Information Consortium, a first-in-the-nation public funding mechanism to support news and information initiatives in the state.