A virtual chat on Sept. 17 will explain how journalists can track and report on opioid settlement fund spending

As part of its mission to help journalists cover opioid lawsuit settlement fund spending in their communities, Reporting on Addiction will host a virtual chat with Mississippi Today’s Allen Siegler and Kate Royals on Sept. 17 at 1 p.m. EST. 

Interested journalists can register here.

During the 30-minute session, Siegler and Royals will discuss:

• How to explain settlement spending with audiences that need specific and clear details on why opioid spending is vitally important to the future health of their communities.
• Outline how they work together -- as reporter and editor -- to shape stories that include complex public health and financial information that readers understand and find engaging.
• Tips on how to pitch accountability stories that get approved.

Siegler is Mississippi Today’s mental health reporter. He has reported on public health for nonprofit newsrooms such as Mountain State Spotlight, an investigative outlet in West Virginia, and Healthbeat, a startup with bureaus in Atlanta and New York City. He holds a master of public health degree.

Royals became Mississippi Today’s managing editor in June. She previously served as the newsroom’s community health editor. Under her leadership, the health team won the 2023 Bill Minor Prize for Investigative Reporting for its series “Shaky Science, Fractured Families,” which she co-reported.

Reporting on Addiction is a collaborative movement staffed by media professionals working to decrease addiction stigmas by sharing leading practices for covering all types of addiction.