Philanthropy Supported Journalism at
The News & Observer

The News & Observer increasingly relies on philanthropy to add reporting capacity on key issues. Philanthropy allows the N&O to deepen its coverage and support public interest journalism. Roughly 10% of The N&O’s newsroom is supported by philanthropic partnerships. In all of these partnerships, The N&O evaluates and hires the journalists and retains control over all editorial content.

Regional and Statewide Reach

The News & Observer is the largest newspaper in North Carolina in terms of circulation, audience and staffing. In 2020, the N&O reached millions of readers. Online The N&O received over 4.5 million monthly unique visitors and 25.3 million average monthly pageviews. The N&O’s daily print circulation was over 68,000, with close to 85,000 on Sundays. The N&O has 25,000 digital-only subscribers and 50,000-plus print and digital subscribers.

NC-Based Collaboratives

NC Watchdog Reporting Network: A collaboration of journalists from across North Carolina producing longform investigative stories with a statewide focus. Includes NC Public Press, The Charlotte Observer, The News & Observer, WBTV, WECT, WRAL and WUNC Public Radio.

North Carolina News Collaborative: NCNC is a collaborative of 22 for-profit news operations across the state. These news operations share content and collaborate on longform projects. NCNC strengthens local news across the state by providing content on issues such as state government that would not otherwise be available.

Distribution Partners

The News & Observer partners with nonprofit newsrooms to distribute their work as well as collaborate on projects. Distribution partners include EdNC, North Carolina Health News and Enlace Latino.

Philanthropy-Funded Projects at The News & Observer

Philanthropy-Supported Reporting Positions: Philanthropy helps the News & Observer cover more topics that are critical to our community. Philanthropy from local and national donors has supported beats covering unemployment, health care and housing, hurricane recovery, demographic change, life sciences, the environment & climate change and technology and entrepreneurship.

Philanthropy-Supported Projects: Philanthropy has supported projects at The News & Observer on voting, climate change, maternal health disparities, safety and public perception, and criminal justice.

Philanthropy-Supported Fellowships: The NC Local News Lab Fund also supports The N&O’s 2021 summer internship class. The N&O hosts fellows from the Poynter-Koch Media and Journalism Fellowship, the Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.

To learn more, contact Adam Waxman, Regional Journalism Development Director, at awaxman@newsobserver.com or ‪(919) 829-4557‬.

Supporters

Since 2019, The News & Observer has partnered with the following organizations, companies, and philanthropies to support public interest journalism.

American Press Institute
American Underground
USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism
Bandwidth Inc.
Burroughs Wellcome Fund
The Charles Koch Institute
The Dogwood Health Trust
Duke Health
Duke Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative
HQ Raleigh
Innovate Raleigh
Loading Dock Raleigh
Murphy’s Naturals
NC IDEA Foundation
NC State University
North Carolina Local News Lab Fund at the North Carolina Community Foundation
The OneEarth Fund
ProPublica
The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting
Report for America
Research Triangle Park
REX Health Ventures
Shaw University
Solutions Journalism Network
Triangle Community Foundation
University of Oregon’s Agora Journalism Center
Vaco
The Water Foundation
William Peace University

We also receive support from individuals across the region through partnerships with Journalism Funding Partners and Report For America.