Nonprofit news organization launching to cover Utah state politics

A new media outlet covering state policy and politics opened its doors in Utah this week.

A member of the States Newsroom network, the group will be funded by the national nonprofit news organization which now has affiliates or content partners in every state but California and Illinois. The Utah affiliate’s official name and website will be released in early January.

Last week, States Newsroom launched the North Dakota Monitor, the ninth affiliate opened in 2023.

States Newsroom affiliated outlets are focused on state government, policy and politics, according to the organization’s website. The affiliates also have opinion sections and carry content from national States Newsroom reporters based in Washington, D.C.

The States Newsroom affiliate in Salt Lake City will join an active media market.

McKenzie Romero, formerly with the Deseret News, is the new editor-in-chief of the Utah affiliate. Romero said despite there already being nonprofit newsrooms in Utah, being part of a national network means the donor pool is different, and they won’t be “wholly reliant on local donations” to stay afloat.

“I think one of the nice things about coming in to Salt Lake and into Utah, it may not be the same need that we see in other states, where newsrooms have closed, where there are news deserts and gaps in coverage,” she said. “It’s more helping to bolster the news ecosystem at a difficult time for news. Everyone’s trying to find their way.”

The national director and publisher for States Newsroom is Chris Fitzsimon, the founder of NC Policy Watch, a progressive publication in North Carolina that was acquired by States Newsroom and renamed NC Newsline.

States Newsroom has said its goal is to provide “high-quality, non-partisan reporting,” and now releases a list of donors who give more than $1,000 a year. In 2020, Fitzsimon told Axios that States Newsroom “doesn’t accept corporate donations or underwriting, just philanthropic donations.”

Donors listed on the organization’s website include institutions such as the University of New Mexico and the University of Virginia Alumni Association, among others. The long list also includes names like the Wyss Foundation, backed by Swiss billionaire and conservationist Hansjörg Wyss, who The Associated Press has called “a Democratic-aligned megadonor.”

Early support for States Newsroom also came from the Hopewell Fund, which is one of the arms of Arabella Advisors, called “the indisputable heavyweight of Democratic dark money” by The Atlantic. In 2019, the magazine Governing said States Newsroom was part of a trend of the “growing number of media organizations with ties to partisan activists.”

But the network has worked to hire experienced journalists in state capitals across the country, and got a $3 million grant from Pew Charitable Trust earlier this year after it merged with Pew’s news project Stateline.

Romero said the network’s donation-model did not give her pause when she decided to come on board, saying, “everyone has an owner.”

“In this case, the owner is a large network of donors, whether it’s small donations from individual readers or larger donations from carefully selected foundations that States Newsroom leaders have identified and seen as appropriate for our group,” she said.

Between 2003 and 2014, the number of journalists covering statehouses dropped by 35% according to a Pew study. But in a 2022 follow-up report, Pew noted there were more reporters covering statehouses in 2022 than in 2014 — but fewer were on that beat full-time. The same study said 20% of statehouse reporters were employed by nonprofit news organizations, up from 6% in 2014.

According to Poynter, the national States Newsroom team “takes care of funding, human resources and digital support for each of the affiliate newsrooms,” and pays for most of their expenses. States Newsroom affiliates also provide their content for free to other news outlets.

Earlier this year, Fitzsimon told Nieman Lab that States Newsroom planned to expand coverage in “states where there is not a strong, thriving daily nonprofit,” adding that at some point, his goal is to have a presence in all 50 states.