Press

January 27, 2025

For Immediate Release

Contact

Lara Weber

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States Newsroom names new editors at Nebraska Examiner, Source New Mexico

Veteran journalists Aaron Sanderford, Julia Goldberg lead reporting teams focused on daily state-level coverage

WASHINGTON — States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, announces new leadership appointments at the Nebraska Examiner and Source New Mexico.

Aaron Sanderford has been named the new editor-in-chief of the Nebraska Examiner, and Julia Goldberg has been named editor-in-chief of Source New Mexico.

Sanderford replaced Cate Folsom, who retired in December and served as editor-in-chief since the Examiner was launched in January 2022. Goldberg replaced former Source New Mexico editor Shaun Griswold, who departed in early October.

“It’s a real testament to the quality of our journalists that we’re able to attract and develop such talented leaders to our state newsrooms,” said Chris Fitzsimon, States Newsroom publisher. “Aaron’s extensive work as a reporter in Nebraska prepared him for this new role. And Julia brings a wealth of experience from her journalism and teaching career. We’re proud to add them both to our ranks of state editors.”

Aaron Sanderford elevated to editor of Nebraska Examiner

Sanderford has tackled various reporting and editing roles in his 20-plus year career in Nebraska. He has reported on politics, crime, courts, government and business for the Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal-Star. He later worked for KMTV 3 in Omaha as its lead investigative reporter. From 2005 to 2007, Sanderford served as communications director for then-Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Kentucky and a master’s degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in journalism and mass communications.

“I’m glad to have the chance to keep growing what Cate and the team built,” Sanderford said. “This place started with the idea that we needed to reinforce local coverage of statehouse news, and it has become much more.”

Julia Goldberg joins Source New Mexico as editor

Goldberg, a veteran New Mexico journalist, was named editor-in-chief of Source New Mexico following a national search.

Most recently she was the editor and publisher of the Santa Fe Reporter, an award-winning alt-weekly, where she was editor for more than a decade. In her 30-plus-year career, she also has written stories that appeared in The New York Times, Salon and numerous other news outlets in New Mexico, including the Rio Grande Sun.

Goldberg was a faculty member at the former Santa Fe University of Art and Design, prior to its closure in 2018, where she designed the creative writing department’s journalism curriculum and oversaw its weekly online student magazine.

In addition to her journalistic and academic pursuits, Goldberg is the author of “Inside Story: Everyone’s Guide to Reporting and Writing Creative Nonfiction.” She’s also been the president of the New Mexico Fund for Public Interest Journalism and the editorial chair for the Association of Alternative News Media.

“I’m honored to join the award-winning journalists at Source, and excited for the stories we’re going to tell in the year ahead,” Goldberg said.

The Nebraska Examiner and Source New Mexico are both part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. The Nebraska Examiner launched in January 2022, and Source New Mexico launched in August 2021.

About States Newsroom

States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit 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.

We run — or partner 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).

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