ProPublica Creates Local Investigative Reporting Project for Regional Newsrooms

In an effort to support investigative journalism at local and regional news organizations, ProPublica announced the ProPublica Local Reporting Network. The yearlong initiative will pay salary, plus an allowance for benefits, for reporters at up to six partner news organizations in cities with populations below 1 million. The reporters will still work in and report to their home newsrooms, but they will receive extensive support and guidance from ProPublica throughout 2018.

In addition to news organizations receiving the one-year grant, reporters will collaborate with a ProPublica senior editor, and ProPublica’s expertise with data, research and engagement will be made available for the work. Each investigation from the ProPublica Local Reporting Network will be published or broadcast by both the reporter’s home newsroom and ProPublica. In a similar collaboration with the New York Daily News in 2016, one of the News’s reporters, Sarah Ryley, worked on a project about the NYPD’s abuse of nuisance abatement laws, which had police kicking people out of their homes without due process. ProPublica helped to develop the work, edit it and dig deeper into the data. The collaborative series led to sweeping legislative reforms, and ultimately won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Eligible newsrooms are invited to apply for the ProPublica Local Reporting Network by Nov. 3. Winning entries will be announced in December, to enable work to begin on Jan. 2.