WASHINGTON – States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, with reporting from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., is expanding the reach of its journalism with a significant move into audio and a slate of new leadership appointments across the network.

Mallory Cheng has joined States Newsroom as national podcast producer, a new position. She will play a key role in developing and launching a national weekly podcast focused on political news from across the states, expected to debut by fall 2025.

Cheng most recently was a host and podcast producer at Wisconsin Public Radio, where she helped launch WPR’s daily news podcast. She previously worked as a Documenter at City Bureau and as an intern at StoryCorps Chicago. She is based in Milwaukee.

The new podcast is in development at a crucial time, as the nation’s journalism community strives to cover rapid changes in government happening at the federal level. States Newsroom, through its daily “Federal Fallout” coverage, is on the ground in every state, reporting on how those changes are affecting real people and how state governments are responding.

A recent study of podcast consumers found that:

• News is the second most-consumed genre (comedy is first) in podcasting, with 31% of podcast listeners tuned in to at least one news podcast in the past month.
• News podcast consumers are very habitual listeners, with 74% listening weekly.
• News podcast listeners often tune in with others, often during in-car or commute listening.

“Now that we’re distributing news from all the states and D.C., it’s a natural step to expand into audio – through podcasts and radio,” States Newsroom Publisher Chris Fitzsimon said. “Several of our outlets are producing terrific local podcasts, and with Mallory’s expertise we’re excited to develop a new way to bring our news from the states to a national audience.”

NEW HIRES STRENGTHEN JOURNALISM IN THE STATES

States Newsroom also recently appointed several journalists to newsroom leadership and expansion positions across its network:

Julia Shumway is the new editor-in-chief of the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Formerly the outlet’s deputy editor, Shumway was a legislative reporter for the Arizona Capitol Times before joining the Capital Chronicle at its launch in 2021. Her new duties began in March.

Jon King has been promoted to editor-in-chief of the Michigan Advance. Most recently, King was deputy editor and senior reporter at the Advance. He started his new role in March.

Jill Nolin has been appointed editor-in-chief of the Georgia Recorder. Nolin is currently deputy editor of the Recorder and will start her new role on June 2, succeeding John McCosh, who is retiring May 30 after an accomplished decades-long career in journalism and government public affairs.

Ross Williams is being promoted to deputy editor at the Georgia Recorder. Currently a reporter at the Recorder, Williams starts his new role June 2.

Emily Previti will join the Pennsylvania Capital-Star as an audio reporter, a new role that will focus on providing audio stories to radio stations across Pennsylvania while also building an audio presence for the Capital-Star. She starts May 19.  

MEDIA AVAILABILITY: Contact Lara Weber, communications director, about media availability or with any questions about States Newsroom: 312-952-0788 or [email protected]

ABOUT STATES NEWSROOM

States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit state-focused news organization. We shine a light on policy and politics in state capitals around the nation and we provide that coverage for free, no pop-ups, paywalls or ads. In an era of rampant disinformation and news deserts, we provide nonpartisan coverage of the state issues that most affect people’s daily lives.

Leading studies cite States Newsroom as key to filling the void in coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to one study, 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 runs — or partners with — news outlets in all 50 state capitals.

We fully fund newsrooms in 39 states, each with its own website. They 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

North Dakota Monitor – northdakotamonitor.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 Carolina Daily Gazette – scdailygazette.com

South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com

Stateline – stateline.org

Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com

Utah News Dispatch – utahnewsdispatch.com

Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com

Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com

West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com

Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com

States Newsroom also has content-sharing agreements with 11 leading nonprofit newsrooms: CalMatters (California), Connecticut Mirror, Spotlight Delaware, Honolulu Civil Beat, Capitol News Illinois, CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont), and WyoFile (Wyoming).