In October 2007, The New York Times ran a story about an unusual new news startup named — at least according to the Times copy desk — “Pro Publica.”
“The plan is to do long-term projects, uncovering misdeeds in government, business and organizations,” Richard Pérez-Peña wrote. “Nothing quite like it has been attempted, and despite having a lot going for it, Pro Publica will be something of an experiment, inventing its practices by trial and error. It remains to be seen how well it can attract talent and win the cooperation of the mainstream media.”
Nearly 20 years later, ProPublica is as remarkable a success story as we’ve seen in digital journalism. After launching with about 20 staffers, it expects to hit 250 this year. And one of its most remarkable transitions during that time is its growing interest in local news. What was once resolutely an Acela-corridor newsroom now has reporters in 20 states, plus structured partnerships with more than 20 local newsrooms, from Anchorage to Tucson, Tulsa to Burlington.
The site’s latest expansion is to California. In May, it announced a new California “investigative reporting hub” — ProPublica’s sixth — and it just named Bernice Yeung to run it. The longtime ProPublican who oversees its local initiatives is Charles Ornstein. He’s spent the past decade building its local work from a single site in Illinois to something that — with California now covered — very nearly covers the entire Lower 48. I spoke with Ornstein about the new operation out west, how ProPublica thinks about its increasingly scattered newsroom, and how it focuses on making local stories resonate nationally. Here’s a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.
So in late 2016, we announced the start of ProPublica Illinois. In 2017, we announced the start of the Local Reporting Network. That was really our first effort to say we have a role to play in this ecosystem. So fast forward to now, and we have 21 active partnerships through the Local Reporting Network. And with the addition of California, we will have 33 reporters on staff in 20 states who are covering local issues. And the reason that’s important, from my perspective, is that these are people who are sending their kids to school in those states. They’re worshiping in those states. They’re going to the grocery store in those states. They’re watching political ads in those states. They understand those states — they’re not parachuting into them. And I think that that gives us real visibility into what’s going on in lots and lots of different places.
