WASHINGTON — ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, an initiative to boost investigative journalism in local newsrooms, announced Tuesday that the Tennessee Lookout, part of States Newsroom, and reporter Adam Friedman are among the five newsrooms and journalists in its second cohort of the 50 State Initiative.

“We’re honored to have the Tennessee Lookout included in ProPublica’s impressive initiative,” said Chris Fitzsimon, publisher of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization, with reporting from every capital. “Collaborations like this – pairing Adam’s local reporting expertise with ProPublica’s investigative work – will benefit smaller publishers across the state and, ultimately, the people of Tennessee.”

The Tennessee Lookout is the third States Newsroom to work directly with ProPublica. The North Dakota Monitor is part of the first cohort of five newsrooms in its 50 State Initiative. And Source New Mexico journalist Patrick Lohmann recently completed a one-year investigation with ProPublica into problems with the federal response to the largest wildfire in the state’s history.

At the Lookout, Friedman covers money and state government. He started his career as one of four reporters at The Jackson Sun, where he led an award-winning series looking into the city’s financial mismanagement and corrupt dealings with its local minor league baseball team. The investigation resulted in a state comptroller investigation, leading to a court requiring the team to pay taxpayers back for wrongful reimbursements. At the Lookout, he was part of a team that won a Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Award for its coverage of the Covenant School shooting and its subsequent fallout. Friedman has also worked at The Tennessean and is a digital journalism graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network will fund Friedman’s salary and benefits at the Lookout while he works on his investigative journalism project beginning on Oct. 1, 2024.

The other reporters in this ProPublica cohort are Margaret Coker of The Current, Becca Savransky of the Idaho Statesman, Jessica Schreifels of The Salt Lake Tribune and K. Rambo of Street Roots.

About Propublica’s Local Reporting Network

ProPublica launched the Local Reporting Network at the beginning of 2018 to boost investigative journalism in local newsrooms. It has since worked with more than 70 news organizations across the country.

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).

# # #