Nieman Foundation at Harvard
Across the country, state lawmakers are preparing to kick off their 2025 legislative sessions. While national politics grabs the lion’s share of news coverage, state governments control key issues that directly impact citizens’ lives. Healthcare access and housing, education standards and infrastructure — the consequences of decisions made about these and other issues shape family budgets, commute times, and quality of life in profound ways.
How prepared are journalists to cover the issues set to be discussed in state legislatures? For decades, the narrative about state government reporting has been almost entirely negative. Surveys show a nearly three- decade decline in the number of reporters assigned to state capitols on a full-time basis. Newsroom managers, moreover, complain that audiences show little interest in state government coverage, disincentivizing already cash-strapped newsrooms from dedicated resources to the beat.
As a professor at the University of Washington, I’ve spent the past two years conducting research on this topic with colleagues at the Center for Journalism, Media and Democracy. Our findings — summarized in a recent report — complicate these narratives of straightforward decline. Taking Washington state as a case study, our research documents the rise of a new generation of statehouse reporters; a growing role for reporters working other beats to bring their expertise to bear on legislative debates; and the influx of new, mostly nonprofit, news organizations whose mission is to fortify state government reporting.
Statehouse press corps have long been dominated by men. This has changed dramatically. Young women now constitute the bulk of Washington state’s press corps. Less interested in politics per se, many view the beat as a way to explore how policies impact the lives of ordinary citizens. This provides an alternative model for covering state government — one that doesn’t assume inherent disinterest on the part of audiences and instead tasks reporters with connecting the dots between policymaking and ordinary citizens’ lives.
Often missed when discussing the dwindling statehouse press corps is the growing involvement of reporters from other beats. In last year’s legislative session, about a third of all coverage was produced by people assigned to cover education, housing, and the environment. Their knowledge of these topics deepens coverage; it also brings a network of sources to a beat that has long been criticized for being overly reliant on government officials. Compared to their statehouse colleagues, reporters from other beats are twice as likely to include nonprofits, activists, and community organizations in their stories.
To be sure, statehouse reporting still faces substantial challenges. Even with a new generation of reporters and expanding news offerings, covering state legislatures remains a daunting proposition. Thousands of bills are introduced each session, and there are hundreds of lawmakers and thousands of lobbyists. Most states, though, have just a handful of full-time state government reporters. Burnout rates are also high, with many lasting only a few years in the job before moving to less stressful beats. Whether audiences will respond to shifting editorial strategies, moreover, remains to be seen.
Much of the revitalization in state government reporting has been driven by non-commercial forces. State governments are increasingly involved in directly funding the employment of early-career journalists. Foundations are responsible for supporting many of the beats, like those pertaining to climate change, that bring expertise to bear on state legislation. And the majority of new offerings are adopting a not-for-profit model. This highlights the failure of commercial models to provide much of the news democracies need and raises questions about how nonprofit organizations can retain newsroom independence as well as whether fickle funders will give up on their commitments to journalism.
Washington state is one case, but it is likely not an outlier. Its press corps is moderately sized — not as large as those found in places like California and New York nor as small as those in Alaska and North Dakota. Politically, its legislature is fairly balanced between Democrats (59%) and Republicans (41%). And its news landscape, moreover, is shaped by developments seen across the country like the growing role of university students, philanthropic initiatives, and digital ventures. All these suggest that the developments are not entirely unique.
Whether or not it represents developments in other legislatures, our report’s findings suggest that narratives of decline are more misleading than clarifying. It would be facile to imply a return to any mythical golden age, or declare without reservations a bright future. It does, however, suggest a revitalization of statehouse reporting. That’s worth noting — not merely to celebrate its existence but to ask about the conditions that give rise to it, and to better understand the support needed to continue its renovation.
Matthew Powers is a professor in the University of Washington’s Department of Communication and co-director of the department’s Center for Journalism, Media and Democracy.
