For Immediate Release
April 3, 2023

Contact: [email protected]

Chapel Hill, N.C. – States Newsroom today announced the relaunch of NC Policy Watch with a new name and website. It is now NC Newsline, which better reflects its mission of nonpartisan reporting on North Carolina state government and politics.

After receiving support from the national network of state-based news outlets since 2019, ownership of NC Policy Watch was formally transferred from the Raleigh-based North Carolina Justice Center to States Newsroom in February 2023. Chris Fitzsimon, Publisher and Director of States Newsroom, founded NC Policy Watch in 2004.

“NC Policy Watch has experienced an evolution from its beginnings as a small outlet keeping tabs on North Carolina leaders to an important fixture in the state’s news ecosystem,” said Chris Fitzsimon, Director and Publisher of States Newsroom. “We are excited to read the important reporting on issues affecting everyday North Carolinians from the NC Newsline team as they expand their mission to provide free, nonpartisan coverage of the state’s government.”

“Our team of veteran, award-winning journalists has a record of high-impact journalism over the last decade-plus that stacks up against any newsroom in the state,” said NC Newsline Editor Rob Schofield. “Our new name better reflects our ambition to provide a relentless stream of reporting that connects the people of North Carolina to the policy that shapes their daily lives.”

As part of its continued growth, States Newsroom announced 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. The nonprofit news organization extended the reach of its reporting last year by launching content-sharing partnerships with eight independent nonprofit outlets, including The Texas Tribune, to host their reporting on News from the States, their comprehensive statehouse news site.

Last year, Pew Research Center cited States Newsroom and other nonprofit newsrooms as key to filling the void in statehouse 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 that is 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.

States Newsroom currently has outlets in 33 states including:

Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com
Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com
Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com
Arizona Mirror – azmirror.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 Beacon – mainebeacon.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
North Carolina Newsline – ncnewsline.com
Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com
Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com
Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com
Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com
South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com
Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com
Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com
Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com

In addition to its network of state-based outlets, States Newsroom has content-sharing agreements with eight leading nonprofit newsrooms: CommonWealth (Massachusetts), Connecticut Mirror, Honolulu Civil Beat (Hawaii), Mountain State Spotlight (West Virginia), Mississippi Today, Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont), and WyoFile (Wyoming).

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