NOTUS announced today that it is expanding the Washington Bureau Initiative, a program where political reporting from its Washington newsroom is co-published with local outlets across the country to ensure that leaders are held accountable by constituents at home.
NOTUS reporting from Congress, the White House and key federal agencies will be made available to a select group of 13 publications, which were chosen because they’re highly collaborative, independent and in close touch with their communities.
New Washington Bureau Initiative newsrooms are:
- The Maine Monitor
- Mississippi Today from Deep South Today
- The Salt Lake Tribune
- Signal Ohio
- Spotlight PA
- VTDigger
- Wisconsin Watch
And NOTUS will continue to collaborate with our existing newsroom partners:
- Oklahoma Watch
- Verite News from Deep South Today
- Two California-based news organizations in the NEWSWELL portfolio: Times of San Diego & Stocktonia
- The Assembly, based in North Carolina
- THE CITY, based in New York City
“Readers can trust NOTUS to tell stories that other outlets are not focused on as they play out in Washington and across the country, and public officials know that our reporters’ work will also appear in local outlets that their voters read,” said Lissandra Villa de Petrzelka, an editor at NOTUS who works closely with partner newsrooms.
Each local newsroom involved in NOTUS’ Washington Bureau Initiative invests financially to help cover some reporting costs. The program is also supported by major philanthropic contributions from The Allbritton Foundation, Arnold Ventures, Google News Initiative, the Schmidt Family Foundation, The Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, The Posner Foundation and the Sandpiper Fund.
And newsrooms are looking forward to offering their readers this public service:
“We are eager to enter this partnership with NOTUS. It will enhance Mississippi Today’s mission of holding public officials accountable and providing insightful coverage of issues that affect the everyday lives of people in our state.”
—Emily Wagster Pettus, Mississippi Today’s editor-in-chief
“It has been 15 years since a Maine news outlet had a reporter in D.C. The Maine Monitor is thrilled that through this new partnership with NOTUS we will have a journalist questioning Maine’s congressional leaders face-to-face, allowing us to bring our accountability reporting to the halls of Congress.”
—Kate Cough, Editor, The Maine Monitor
“Spotlight PA delivers critical accountability reporting about Pennsylvania’s state government to our readers across the commonwealth. I’m thrilled our partnership with NOTUS will help cover our elected officials in Washington just as rigorously.”
—Sarah Anne Hughes, Deputy Editor, Spotlight PA
“At Signal Ohio, we believe that quality news and information helps residents become more civically engaged in the places they call home. This partnership with NOTUS builds on that mission, ensuring Ohioans have greater access to trusted information and a clearer understanding of how decisions are made not only in Ohio but in Washington, D.C., to shape their daily lives.”
—Michelle Everhart Sullivan, Chief Audience Officer, Signal Ohio
“The decisions about what happens to Utah’s public lands, how its universities are supported, who does and doesn’t have health care, how military families are cared for and countless other impacts to Utahns are made 2,000 miles away from the Beehive State. We are excited to partner with NOTUS to help bring Utahns the latest news from Congress and deeper reporting on the decisions made by Utah’s federal delegation.”
—Jeff Parrott, Politics Editor, The Salt Lake Tribune
“There’s a lot of news coming out of Washington, D.C., these days, but very few reporters covering it with a Wisconsin audience in mind. This partnership will further our mission of rebuilding local news from the ground up.”
—Matt DeFour, State Bureau Chief, Wisconsin Watch
“We are so thrilled that NOTUS will enable us to bring our readers critical accountability reporting from Washington. This is something our news publication has long wanted to provide to our readers, but we’ve been limited in what we could cover because of resource constraints.”
—Geeta Anand, Editor-in-Chief, VTDigger
In less than a year, the Washington Bureau Initiative has informed voters across the country about key political and policy initiatives that affect their day-to-day lives. Examples include:
- N.C. Sen. Thom Tillis Announces His Retirement
- Trump Said He’s Just ‘Starting With D.C.’ Democrats Who Run Other Cities Worry They’re Next.
- FEMA botched the Katrina response. Many who were there still say the agency is critical.
- Kamala Harris Won’t Run for Governor
- Trump’s Homeland Security Council Sets Its Sights on Zohran Mamdani
About NOTUS:
NOTUS is a newsroom like no other: a mix of veteran reporters and editors working with some of the country’s most promising up-and-coming reporters — individuals from different regions, different backgrounds, and different beliefs who have come to Washington as fellows at the Allbritton Journalism Institute.
Together, we cover government and politics with the fresh eyes of newcomers and the expertise of veterans. We call it like we see it, no matter whose narrative it fits or how many clicks it will get.
About AJI:
The Allbritton Journalism Institute is a nonprofit educational organization launched in 2023 by Robert Allbritton, the former publisher of Politico. AJI trains aspiring journalists from across the country through a mix of classroom instruction and real-world experience reporting for NOTUS, the political news outlet AJI launched in January 2024.
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For media inquiries, contact Justin Peligri: justinpeligri@notus.com