NOTUS, Oklahoma Watch Partner in Washington Bureau Initiative

by Oklahoma Watch, Oklahoma Watch
February 25, 2025

NOTUS and the Allbritton Journalism Institute are partnering with a group of local newsrooms around the country to provide their readers with critical accountability reporting from Washington.

Supported by a $500,000 grant from the Google News Initiative, the AJI-NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative will give readers in local communities the reporting they need to understand what their elected representatives are doing in Congress — and how the actions taken by Congress, the White House and federal agencies are affecting their lives.

The journalism produced as part of the initiative will appear on NOTUS.org, as well as on the sites of the local news partners. They are:

• Oklahoma Watch
• San José Spotlight
• Verite News from Deep South Today
• Three California-based news organizations in the NEWSWELL portfolio: Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press & Stocktonia
• The Assembly, based in North Carolina

Tim Grieve, the editor-in-chief of NOTUS and executive director of AJI, said that these newsrooms were chosen for the pilot program because they’re highly collaborative, independent and in close touch with their communities.

“In just a year, NOTUS has established itself as a nonpartisan news source that’s read and trusted by members of Congress, White House officials and other Washington insiders,” Grieve said. “We’re excited to partner with great local newsrooms to expand the reach of our journalism and to help voters back home keep tabs on their representatives and their government.”

The Allbritton Journalism Institute is a nonprofit educational organization launched in 2023 by Robert Allbritton, the former publisher of Politico. AJI trains aspiring journalists from across the country through a mix of classroom instruction and real-world experience reporting for NOTUS, the news site AJI launched in January 2024.

Each participating local newsroom will invest financially in the initiative to help cover some reporting costs. In addition to the Google News Initiative, the Washington Bureau Initiative is made possible by founding grants from The Allbritton Foundation, The Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, and the Sandpiper Fund.

Each participating local newsroom will also invest financially in the initiative to help cover some reporting costs. Leaders in the newsrooms say the initiative will help them deliver news that their readers need to make sense of Washington.

“The opportunity for Oklahoma Watch to deliver exclusive Capitol Hill reporting on issues critical to our state represents an important step that will benefit all Oklahomans,” said Ted Streuli, executive director of Oklahoma Watch.

This article first appeared on Oklahoma Watch and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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