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The entrance to the New York Times headquarters is shown on Dec. 8, 2022 in New York. The work for this project, of course, will mostly not take place here. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

The New York Times isn’t new to working with local newsrooms. But it does appear to be getting better at the task.
As my late colleague Rick Edmonds reported in 2011, the Times Company sold 16 regional newspapers it owned ([link removed]) to invest in its own “next wave of digital development.” Fourteen years later, I think we can agree the Times has reinvested in itself pretty well ([link removed]) .
In the last few years, it has moved back into the local news space in a different way — as a partner.
In 2023, I wrote about the Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship ([link removed]) , which would work with journalists and newsrooms around the country to invest in, edit and support ambitious journalism. This year, one of those partnerships won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative journalism with The Baltimore Banner ([link removed]) .
Now, the work moves beyond mere partnership.
Last month, the Times announced its latest project ([link removed]) — a regional investigative center with Deep South Today. (Deep South Today ([link removed]) is a network of nonprofit newsrooms in Mississippi and Louisiana.) The center, which launches early next year, will include a lead editor, full-time investigative reporters and data reporters, and fellows at Mississippi Today ([link removed]) and Verite News ([link removed]) in New Orleans, according to the press release. The center will also get support from Stanford University’s Big Local News. (Fun fact: Verite News’ editor-in-chief is Terry Baquet. The New York Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship’s executive editor is brother Dean Baquet.)
“Our very first fellow came from Mississippi Today, investigating sheriffs across Mississippi,” said Chris Davis, the fellowship’s deputy editor.
As that work expanded and the journalists involved found serious and continuing examples of police brutality ([link removed]) , “no one wanted to walk away from them because there’s still more to be done.”
“We’re really trying to fill the gaps in local news coverage all over our region, and there are a lot of gaps,” said Warwick Sabin, Deep South Today’s president and CEO.
Thanks to the partnership with The New York Times, reporters in Mississippi and Louisiana are able to build investigative muscles, he said, and with the new center, they’ll add more permanence and infrastructure to the work.
“What we thought was necessary was to house this investigative reporting center at Deep South Today,” Sabin said, “on the ground.”
The Times’ Davis sees the Deep South Today center as a new way to test how the fellowship can help local news. If it works there, it could be replicated.
For Deep South Today, which partners with a number of organizations, the center is an opportunity to build something sustainable.
“The reason why Deep South Today was created was we’re in a region underserved by local journalism,” Sabin said. “If we’re going to really do this kind of investigative reporting, which we all agree is very needed … then I think we’re going to have to do it in partnership and collaboration with other organizations. We can’t do everything ourselves, and we have to make the most of all the resources that we can coalesce.”
And there’s a lot to cover, including the environment, health care, how cuts to the federal government are hitting communities and voting rights. Positions are open now ([link removed]) .
Something that’s stuck out as the Times’ fellowship has worked with newsrooms across the country, Davis said, is that it’s hard to build capacity for this kind of work in small newsrooms.
“This is one option for trying to address that problem.”

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While you’re here:
* Happy 50th birthday to Poynter! I’m really grateful that Poynter exists right now. If you are, too, you can show your support here ([link removed]) .
* I’m going to write more about this in December, but I’m really excited that we’ve launched applications for Today’s News for Tomorrow. This is a Press Forward-funded partnership between Internet Archive, IRE and Poynter that will work with hundreds of local newsrooms over the next two years to help preserve coverage before the internet eats it, link rot decays it, a tech change destroys it or outside forces disappear it. You can learn more here ([link removed]) .
* There’s still time to register ([link removed]) for The Objective’s first Trans Media Convening. This free, virtual training takes place on Nov. 14.
* Listen to “Out of Print,” ([link removed]) a podcast about the struggles of the Shelter Island Reporter.
* Hey first-time novel writers ([link removed]) , applications are now open for the 2026 George R.R. Martin Summer Intensive Writing Workshop at Northwestern University.
* And I love this piece by my colleague, Tony Elkins, about how we communicate across generations ([link removed]) .

That’s it for me. Thanks for reading. And that’s it for this newsletter for November, by the way. Next week I’m teaching and the week after I’m off for Thanksgiving. I hope your feast is delicious and the people you get to enjoy it with are worthy of it. 🥧
Kristen
Kristen Hare
Faculty
The Poynter Institute
@kristenhare ([link removed])
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