Building a Permanent Home for Environmental Journalism 2017 Annual Report insideclimatenews.org About InsideClimate News Bringing Back Journalism InsideClimate News is a Pulitzer Prize-winning non-profit, non-partisan news organization that provides essential reporting and analysis on climate, energy and the environment for That’s Gone Missing the public and decision-makers. We serve as watchdogs of government, industry and advocacy groups and hold them accountable for their policies and actions. Already one of the largest environment newsrooms in the country, ICN is committed to establishing a Dear Reader, permanent national reporting network, training the next generation of journalists, and strengthening the practice of environmental journalism. InsideClimate News celebrated its 10th anniversary last November, and our second decade is already off to an auspicious start with good news reaching us two times over. First, both the Scripps Howard Awards and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers ICN by the Numbers awarded honors to our two biggest bodies of work from 2017—Finding Middle Ground and Choke as of December 31, 2017 Hold, both highlighted in this annual report—as well as two other ICN investigations. Second, the Grantham Foundation gave us confirmation that it will be providing a major grant to help us kick-start the establishment of a national environment reporting network. 84.9K Twitter followers Why do we want to build this national network? Because the ecosystem of environmental journalism 74,165 has been hollowed out in most local markets. Our newsroom may provide safe harbor for talented Facebook likes environmental journalists, but they are in short supply at news outlets in the vast middle of the 22,936 2,000+ country. A dangerous silence has descended on too many communities about profound changes subscribers 112,574 individual donors afflicting our natural world. newsletter impressions per week We see it as part of our mission to revive and embolden environmental journalism so it can spark civic discussion where it’s most needed—in the backyards and main streets of everyday America. We have witnessed a great hunger for these conversations that have gone missing in the carnage Steady Growth in Traffic of the polarization of recent years. 2011-2017 4M 3,701,876 Our non-profit environmental newsroom is the biggest of its kind in the nation. We make the claim proudly even if we have only 15 people. We consistently punch above our weight. We went from start-up to a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in five years, and from there doubled our staff 2,892,873 while journalism was going through a devastating financial crisis. Ours is an improbable story, 3M and an important chapter in the coming of age of non-profit journalism. 2,199,897 Still, both Earth’s climate and American journalism are facing a long season of reckoning ahead. The two crises at the heart of ICN’s concerns are in worse condition than when we started Pulitzer 2M win publishing in 2007. American leadership on climate solutions has been thrown into reverse, and the central role of a free press in American democracy is under attack. Operators, foreign and domestic, are running amok undermining the validity of facts and rational discourse. 1M It only means that our work at ICN is as important as ever. It’s why, as we continue to produce our journalism and build our reporting network, we are also launching a summer journalism program for high school students. Training the next generation of environmental reporters is part of our mission, too, as we embark on our next decade of journalism in the public interest. 0 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 '11 '12 '13 '14 '15 '16 '17 USERS SESSIONS PAGE VIEWS David Sassoon Founder and Publisher, InsideClimate News 1 How We Are Working to Revive Board of Directors Environmental Journalism InsideClimate News is a non-profit incorporated in the state of New York and a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization operating with IRS approval as a public charity. It is governed As ICN has grown over the last 10 years into one of the nation’s largest environmental by a Board of Directors and guided by the best practices of non-profit management. newsrooms, we have simultaneously witnessed environmental journalism all but vanish from small, trusted outlets in the nation’s interior. We are now continuing our work to revive environmental journalism by developing a national environment reporting network and training the next generation of environment reporters. Establishing a National Reporting Network… Seattle Lawrence Susan Kish Ted Jennifer 8. Lee Michael Norman David Sassoon Missoula Great Falls Grand Rodman Loewenthal Northrop Pearlstine Forks Duluth Bismarck Portland GR Minneapolis EAT Wausau Traverse City New Hampshire P G Boston LA R East Casper I Sioux Falls EA Boise N T Lansing S L New York Rapid Garden A Erie Allocation of Funds Lander City Madison City K Cleveland Philadelphia Ottumwa E How we spent $1,870,000 in 2017: Morgantown San Reno Ogden S Springfield Washington, D.C. Francisco Lincoln Columbus S Grand Macon O Junction Indianapolis Charleston Program Fundraising Management U Denver T Lawrence Marion Louisville 82% 15% 3% Las St. George H Kansas City Vegas W Bowling Durham E Liberal Green ST Charlotte Chattanooga Farmington Norman Little Greenville Phoenix Rock Athens Columbia Albuquerque Birmingham San Diego Lubbock Tupelo Atlanta ST Fort Worth HEA Tucson Big Spring Dallas SOUT Current and Shreveport Jackson Dothan proposed staff Marfa Tallahassee Austin Current partners New Orleans Future partners Houston San Antonio Anchorage Diversifying Sources of Revenue Honolulu Revenue in 2014 Revenue in 2016 Revenue in 2017 Online Collaborations/ Syndication Corporate Corporate …and Training the Next Generation of Reporters Donors Syndications <1% Sponsors Sponsors 10th Anniversary 3% 2% 7% 4% Gala Benefit Corporate Online Sponsors Donors Syndication 6% ICN’s inaugural Institute Individual 7% 2% Donors 2% 5% Online for Environmental Journalism Individual Donors Donors 9% 6% Individual Donors 9% Foundations Foundations Foundations 88% 79% 70% A 3-week intensive for high school students and recent graduates, July 2018, St. Joseph’s College, Brooklyn, NY. 2 3 2018 SCRIPPS HOWARD AWARD FINALIST 2007-2017 Finding Middle Ground Ten Years of Journalism Conversations across America about Climate Change ICN began an important search for an elusive geography in 2017: the middle How ICN became the largest non-profit ground on climate change. Harsh politics and fiercely guarded values made it a risky environmental newsroom in the nation assignment, but writer Meera Subramanian’s talent and humanity provoked revealing conversations across America’s heartland. Her lyrical and healing body of work captures the complicated connections that Americans have to the places that sustain them—and just how tangled our notions around climate change can be. • ICN founded2007 by David Sassoon & Stacy • The New York2013 Times dismantles its • Susan White2015 steps down, Stacy Feldman Feldman with funding of $150,000 from the environment desk steps in as executive editor Rockefeller Brothers Fund In Georgia’s Peach Orchards, • Only about a dozen environment reporters • Neela Banerjee joins ICN as senior • The original website launches as a fiscally remain at top 5 U.S. newspapers investigative reporter Warm Winters Raise Specter of sponsored project of Public Interest Projects (now Neo Philanthropy) • Jack Cushman joins ICN • Big Oil & Bad Air wins National Press Climate Change Foundation energy writing award and seven • ICN wins Pulitzer Prize for National • 57,000 journalists are working at daily additional awards from other juries 100 miles newspapers around the country Reporting for The Dilbit Disaster: Inside the Musella, GA. Biggest Oil Spill You’ve Never Heard Of • ICN relaunches its website Atlanta Crawford County 2016 population: 1,409 • McClatchy enters into agreement to • ICN publishes Exxon: The Road Not Taken publish ICN content Macon • 33,000 journalists are left working at daily Savannah • ICN makes2008 top 10 list of climate sites ranked • ICN publishes Bloomberg’s Hidden Legacy: newspapers around the country GEORGIA by Technorati Climate Change and the Future of New York City • Financial crisis in journalism starts to shut down or shrink news outlets TING TEN A Y R E • Grantham Foundation2016 provides a five-year B Seeing God’s Hand in the Deadly E A “What was advanced yesterday is no longer advanced today,” James Beall said. L R $1.5 million grant to ICN E S Floods, Yet Wondering about He sees wind power and its continuing advancements as the future. C • Exxon: The Road Not Taken is a finalist for • 47,000 journalists2009 are left working at daily the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service and wins Climate Change newspapers around the country ten other awards In West Texas Where Wind Power White Sulphur Springs, • Reuters begins publishing ICN stories • ICN wins EPPY award for best web site W. VA. Means Jobs, Climate Talk Is Columbus during Copenhagen climate talks redesign/relaunch WEST Greenbrier County Beside the Point VIRGINIA 2016 population (estimate): 2,420 • Norman Pearlstine, Jennifer 8. Lee and Ted Washington D.C. Charleston Loewenthal join the board of directors 150 miles 2 Sweetwater, Texas 007 2017 Roanoke - • ICN launches its membership program, Lubbock Nolan County • Reuters enters2010 into formal agreement to the ICN Circle 2016 population (estimate): 10,755 publish ICN content