COLUMBIA, S.C. – States Newsroom, the nation’s leading network of state-based nonprofit news outlets, today launched the South Carolina Daily Gazette to provide free, high-quality, nonpartisan reporting on the important issues affecting the Palmetto State. With the launch of the Daily Gazette, States Newsroom’s network now includes 37 state outlets and Stateline.

Award-winning journalist Seanna Adcox will lead the Daily Gazette’s newsroom as Editor. She brings three decades of experience to States Newsroom, launching the Gazette after covering the legislature and state politics for 18 years. A native South Carolinian, Adcox found her penchant for state government reporting while working for the Associated Press in Albany, N.Y. She returned to the Palmetto State in September 2003 as an education reporter for The Post and Courier before joining the AP as a Statehouse reporter. Since graduating from Winthrop University in 1996, Adcox has also worked for the Cheraw Chronicle, the Fort Mill Times, and the Rock Hill Herald. During college, she worked for her hometown paper, The People-Sentinel of Barnwell County.

Additional members of the newsroom include:

• Jessica Holdman, Senior Reporter: Jessica Holdman has more than a decade of newspaper experience, most recently with The Post and Courier. Before moving to South Carolina in 2019, she worked for newspapers in North Dakota, Washington, and her home state of Missouri. Her reporting has won awards from the North Dakota and South Carolina press associations. Holdman reports on South Carolina’s workforce, the economy and higher education.
• Skylar Laird, Reporter: Skylar Laird covers the South Carolina Legislature and criminal justice issues. A University of Missouri graduate, she reported for the Kansas City Star and Columbia Missourian in her home state. She moved to South Carolina in 2022 to cover local government for The Post and Courier’s Columbia bureau and earned a first-place award for beat reporting.
• Abraham Kenmore, Reporter: Abraham Kenmore covers politics and policy. Born outside Buffalo, N.Y., he joins the Daily Gazette from neighboring Georgia, where he worked for The Augusta Chronicle. He started his journalism career in upstate New York before earning a Master of Public Policy degree from Duke University in North Carolina. His reporting has won awards from the New York and Georgia press associations. He is excited to tell stories about how elections, legislation, and policy decisions affect the day-to-day life of South Carolinians.

“We are thrilled to announce our expansion to the Palmetto State and bring South Carolinians reliable reporting on critical state government and policy issues,” said Chris Fitzsimon, Director and Publisher of States Newsroom. “Seanna and her award-winning team are ready to provide free, high-quality, nonpartisan news coverage to South Carolina. As we reach the end of 2023, we look forward to continuing to build successful newsrooms and support local journalism across the country.”

As part of its continued growth, States Newsroom announced in March that it was selected by The Pew Charitable Trusts to be the new home of Stateline – merging the two state policy-focused organizations to expand their incisive reporting on state government around the country. States Newsroom also launched content-sharing partnerships with eight independent nonprofit outlets, including The Texas Tribune, to host reporting on News from the States, its comprehensive statehouse news site. With the launch of the South Carolina Daily Gazette, States Newsroom is closing in on the organization’s milestone of having newsrooms or content-sharing agreements in all 50 states by mid-2024.

Last year, in a national study on statehouse reporting, Pew Research Center cited States Newsroom and other nonprofit newsrooms as key to filling the void in coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to Pew, the overall percentage of reporters working for nonprofit newsrooms in the statehouse press corps has more than tripled since 2014 and now makes up the largest portion of statehouse reporters in 10 states and the second largest in 17 states.

States Newsroom is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit funded by the generous contributions of readers and philanthropists. States Newsroom is committed to supporting fact-based, non-partisan news to the public at no cost and ad-free.

Other States Newsroom affiliates are:

Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com

Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com

Arizona Mirror – azmirror.com

Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com

Colorado Newsline – coloradonewsline.com

Florida Phoenix – floridaphoenix.com

Georgia Recorder – georgiarecorder.com

Idaho Capital Sun – idahocapitalsun.com

Indiana Capital Chronicle – indianacapitalchronicle.com

Iowa Capital Dispatch – iowacapitaldispatch.com

Kansas Reflector – kansasreflector.com

Kentucky Lantern – kentuckylantern.com

Louisiana Illuminator – lailluminator.com

Maine Morning Star – mainemorningstar.com

Maryland Matters – marylandmatters.org

Michigan Advance – michiganadvance.com

Minnesota Reformer – minnesotareformer.com

Missouri Independent – missouriindependent.com

Daily Montanan – dailymontanan.com

Nebraska Examiner – nebraskaexaminer.com

Nevada Current – nevadacurrent.com

New Hampshire Bulletin – newhampshirebulletin.com

New Jersey Monitor – newjerseymonitor.com

Source New Mexico – sourcenm.com

NC Newsline – ncnewsline.com

Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com

Oklahoma Voice – oklahomavoice.com

Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com

Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com

Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com

South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com

Stateline – stateline.org

Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com

Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com

Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com

West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com

Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com

In addition to its network of state-based newsrooms, States Newsroom has content-sharing agreements with eight leading nonprofit newsrooms: CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Connecticut Mirror, Honolulu Civil Beat, Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger, and WyoFile.