"Virginia Mercury" redirects here. For the flowering plant, see
Acalypha virginica.
States Newsroom is a left-leaning non-profit news organization with outlets or partner outlets in all 50 U.S. states.[1] It began as a sponsored project of the
Hopewell Fund, a left-leaning nonprofit that does not disclose its donors.[2][3] In 2019, it spun off to become its own non-profit. It accepts no corporate donations, and publicly shares the sources of all contributions above $1,000.[1] It grew out of
NC Policy Watch, a progressive think tank in North Carolina founded by Chris Fitzsimon. Fitzsimon is States Newsroom's director and publisher.[4]
States Newsroom had anticipated revenue of more than $27 million by the end of 2021. As of 2024, it reported having 220 full-time employees, with an annual budget of more than $22 million.[1] It grew from five affiliates upon its 2019 launch to 39 freestanding newsrooms at 11 partner outlets by early 2024.[1] In July 2020, all the publications associated with States Newsroom were included in a resource created by the
Nieman Foundation for Journalism purporting to show "hyperpartisan sites... masquerading as local news", but they were removed from the list after States Newsroom's national editor noted that the funding model is much more transparent and that many staffers for the group are longtime journalists.[5][6]
The
Wyss Foundation, founded by Swiss billionaire
Hansjörg Wyss, has donated to States Newsroom. Media watchdog
NewsGuard said State Newsroom's journalism had been "bought by people with a political agenda", a charge States Newsroom has rebutted.[7]
In December 2021, States Newsroom announced plans to nearly double its presence from 25 states to 40 states. The organization reported raising $10 million in 2020. According to The Washington Post, "Their affiliates publish opinion pieces, much like newspapers' editorial pages, that largely lean left."[8]
On 4 April 2024, all links from Kansas Reflector's
Facebook page to its own website were removed. All links from Facebook users who shared Kansas Reflector's content were also removed. Kansas Reflector senior staff stated readers wanted to know why Facebook's justification for the removal was "fals[e] claims [by Facebook that Kansas Reflector was] a cybersecurity risk". The links were restored later in the day. A
Meta Platforms (owner of Facebook, Inc.) representative stated that the removals "had nothing to do with the Reflector's recent criticism of Meta". The Kansas City Star was sceptical of Meta's statement, and recommended that readers visit news organisations' websites directly or contact their journalists by email to "cut out the social media middleman".[15]