New journalism philanthropy shifts under the Trump administration have disproportionately affected organizations led by people of color.

After a historic three-year strike, staffers at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette returned to work in late November. Now, the 239-year-old paper is shuttering.

New Chicago Documenters register their accounts at a fall 2025 City Bureau workshop. Photo by Grace Del Vecchio, courtesy of City Bureau. Illustration work by Erik Rodriguez. Get The Objective in your ...

Get The Objective in your inbox every week. I’m grateful for all the thoughtful, smart writers we’ve been able to work with this past year, and for those who have published the media criticism and ...

Edited screenshot, with original text from the “About” page of the Knight Foundation from Sep. 17, 2025. The Knight Foundation has edited its “About” page to remove its diversity, equity, and ...

Mike Rispoli testifying in the New Jersey Statehouse. Photo by Tim Karr, courtesy of Free Press. Illustration work by Erik Rodriguez. Get The Objective in your inbox every week. This piece is part of ...

Residents of Morristown, N.J. gather with journalists at a 2017 Free Press event to discuss how to strengthen local news. Photo courtesy of Timothy Karr, illustration work by Erik Rodriguez. Get The ...

How do you report on a meme? Pepe the Frog might be the obvious case in point, a wildly popular meme figure whose meanings are many and whose symbology was clumsily explained by news media when its ...

A Jersey Bee youth media workshop held at Rutgers University-Newark last year focused on producing a “Student’s Guide to School Board Elections.” Photo courtesy of Nikki Villafane for the Jersey Bee, ...

This piece is part of the column series ‘The Case for Movement Journalism‘. Read other column installments here. These purposes for journalism make up a kind of draft “theory of change” for movement ...

From left to right: Aiyana Ishmael, Rainesford Stauffer, Alma Avalle. Photos courtesy of their respective owners. Get The Objective in your inbox every week. In 2020, I pitched an interview with young ...