New Nonprofit Newsroom to Focus on California Government

As traditional California media cut back on Sacramento coverage, a new nonprofit is set to launch next month with what its editor called “deeply reported” stories on state politics and policy, writes the Columbia Journalism Review.

Based in the capital, CALmatters will focus solely on California government and politics and aims to publish articles on its own website and offer them to print and broadcast outlets.

CALmatters founder Simone Coxe, a former public-relations executive in the tech sector and a director of Bay Area public radio station KQED, is about halfway to meeting a $5 million fundraising target and has pledged to cover any shortfall herself. Editor Gregory Favre, formerly executive editor of the Sacramento Bee, said the digital newsroom will eschew daily coverage in favor of long-form narrative and investigative journalism. “I think the stories that we do will all matter,” he said.