2025 Statehouse Reporting Data

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Key Findings

As local newsrooms across the country have fewer resources to cover policy and politics, community reporting programs at U.S. colleges and universities have stepped up to provide dedicated reporting on this critical beat. Under the direction of professional journalism educators and editors, college students now provide a meaningful portion of statehouse, elections and democracy reporting in news outlets across dozens of states. These news-academic partnerships are a win for students, communities and the future of civic information. 

In 2025, CCN measured accelerated growth in this field, and the potential for more in coming years.

  • There are now 35 university- or college-led statehouse reporting initiatives in 30 states across the country.
  • 11 of those programs are newly launched, or about to start, since the last time CCN documented these programs in 2023.
  • New additions to the college-led statehouse reporting field are located in Texas, Vermont, Tennessee, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina, New Mexico, Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois. A program in Delaware will launch in 2026, while another in Colorado launched last year and is now on hold.
  • The rapid growth of student statehouse reporting programs at U.S. colleges is a product of accelerating investment and coordination among higher education and legacy news, philanthropy and the nonprofit sector.
    • The Center for Community News played an integral role in seeding nine of the new programs, which were recipients of the CCN Faculty Champions program and participants in CCN mentoring offerings.
    • The New Jersey Statehouse News Service won a $100,000 grant from the New Jersey Civic Consortium and is a finalist in the most recent round of Press Forward infrastructure funding.
    • And many of the statehouse programs are now collaborating in national news stories via the Statehouse Reporting Project, a coordinated national effort led by the University of Missouri to produce collaborative policy and politics stories. 

Impact of Student Statehouse Reporting

Map of the US showing growth of statehouse student reporting. 12 states are highlighted as having new programs after March 2023. 19 existed prior to March 2023. 90 schools are within 15 miles of a statehouse.

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