At Report for America, we’re inspired by the commitment that local newsrooms have to serving their communities. We know they are best positioned to tell the important local stories and hold power to account.
Too often, small and mid-size newsrooms don’t have the necessary resources to dive deep into a local issue. In 2021, Report for America, with support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation, began partnering with Investigative Editing Corps (IEC) to support newsroom partners that might lack the in-house investigative editing and reporting expertise to pursue ambitious accountability journalism.
Today, Report for America is proud to announce that over the next three years, we are expanding this critical work, supporting 48 local investigations produced by our newsroom partners. The expansion of the Report for America Investigative Reporting and Editing Program is fueled by the generous support of Arnold Ventures and the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation.
Investigative projects are time-consuming, legally sensitive, and resource-intensive — a difficult proposition for organizations already stretched thin and with limited editorial staff. Our investigative support teaches reporters how to juggle investigative work while staying on top of their beat. An IEC investigative editor assigned to each project helps reporters access applicable records and data, as well as outline, write and fact-check an investigative project. The editor works closely with newsroom editors to bring the project to fruition.
To date, Report for America newsrooms have produced ten exceptional investigative journalism projects through the partnership with IEC. Many of these projects yielded significant community impact. Last week, the Rappahannock News & Foothills Forum in Virginia published “Rural Justice? A Broken System,” a project highlighting the area’s troubled criminal justice system.
Additionally, other investigations and their impact include:
- Samantha Hogan at The Maine Monitor investigated the state’s probate courts, finding that officials couldn’t explain the deaths of numerous people under public guardianship. The news prompted an outcry from state lawmakers for better oversight of guardians and renewed calls for reform to the probate courts. Hogan was awarded the Livingston Award for Local Reporting for her coverage.
- Latino and low-income residents living near a supposed “priority” Superfund site in Grand Prairie, Texas, did not know about the toxic site until Alejandra Martinez reported about it for KERA/The Texas Newsroom, which spurred federal cleanup action.
As we expand our investigative journalism work with Report for America partner newsrooms, Investigative Editing Corps will continue to play a key role, equipping newsroom and corps members with the investigative skills, specialized training and editorial guidance they need to produce meaningful investigative projects largely focused on accountability and community impact. This expansion is led by Kim Kleman, Report for America’s executive director, working with Rose Ciotta, founder and executive director of Investigative Editing Corps.
Report for America will also provide newsrooms with unique, layered support to build stronger and more sustainable revenue streams as they expand their investigative capacity. Report for America’s local news sustainability team will work closely with newsrooms to help them raise local revenue and grow their audience as their investigations are published.
We look forward to sharing the work that our newsroom partners and corps members will produce in the years ahead as a result of the expansion of the Report for America Investigative Reporting and Editing Program.
About Report for America
Report for America recruits, places, and supports talented journalists in local newsrooms across the United States. The program provides salary support, training, and newsroom sustainability coaching, enabling partners to expand coverage of critical, often overlooked issues and strengthen trust with their audiences. By July 2026, Report for America will have placed more than 850 journalists in 465 newsrooms nationwide and will have helped newsroom partners raise more than $60 million in local donations to support community news coverage. Report for America is an initiative of Report Local, a nonprofit journalism organization dedicated to strengthening local journalism across the U.S. and around the world.