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2020 ANNUAL REPORT KyCIR.org | 502-814-6500 619 S. 4th Street | Louisville, KY 40202 About Us The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom founded in 2014 by Louisville Public Media, a 501(c)3 corporation that operates three public radio stations, including 89.3 WFPL News. KyCIR works with WFPL and other news partners across the region to produce and distribute original reporting in the public interest. Our journalism affects you, your neighborhood and your commonwealth. Our mission is to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens, expose wrongdoing in the public and private sectors, increase transparency in government and hold leaders accountable, all in accordance with journalism’s highest standards. Many newsrooms today are facing difficult choices. Some are shrinking staff and cutting back on investigative reporting, which takes significant time and resources. At KyCIR, we believe this in-depth reporting is critical. Our journalism shines a light on major problems in our city and state, sparks conversation and spurs solutions to the commonwealth’s woes. We are members of our community. And our work is funded and supported by our community. “KyCIR is an extremely important asset to the state and nation. Honesty, integrity, and evidence-based reporting are essential values for society; without them we disintegrate. Thank you KyCIR for your role in our lives.” — Alison Sommers and Richard Lewine, Louisville, KY 1 A Note From The President Revealing. Responsive. Relentless. We came up with that tagline for KyCIR years ago, but it resonated more than ever in 2020. The team dedicated itself to responding to what was happening before us all — the COVID-19 pandemic and the movement for racial justice after Louisville police’s killing of Breonna Taylor. Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM As you’ll see in these pages, KyCIR spent 2020 reporting relentlessly on the dual crises that engulfed our city and state. The team revealed a state government that was unprepared to support out-of-work Kentuckians. It revealed unaccountable police and judicial systems — not just in the killing of Taylor but in the way they conduct and approve investigations. I’m so proud of the work KyCIR did this year — one of the most challenging any of us has ever experienced. Thank you for your support throughout it all. Sincerely, Stephen George President, Louisville Public Media A Note From KyCIR’s Managing Editor In 2020, the KyCIR team grew in every way possible. It should come as no surprise the year challenged us in ways we never could have predicted. From our homes, we launched investigations into local and state officials’ responses to the COVID pandemic. From the streets, we covered protesters in the pursuit of racial justice, and the police who responded in riot gear. And in the middle of it all, we added a new team member through the Report for America program. Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM We are now bigger than ever before, and we learned important lessons in 2020 about the role we fill and the role we want to grow into in the coming years. We are so grateful for your continued support. Sincerely Kate Howard Managing Editor, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting 2 KyCIR Staff Kate Howard | Managing Editor Kate Howard became managing editor of KyCIR in July 2018. She first joined the team in 2016 as an investigative reporter. Before KyCIR, Howard spent 12 years as a newspaper reporter, with stints at The Tennessean, The Florida Times-Union and the Omaha World-Herald. Howard’s work has been the recipient of a national Investigative Reporters and Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM Editors award and numerous state and regional awards. Howard is originally from Rhode Island and graduated from Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I. Jared Bennett | Reporter Before KyCIR, he spent nearly five years at the Center for Public Integrity. Jared’s reporting on business and technology has been recognized with awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers and the Excellence in Financial Journalism Awards, and as a finalist for the Gerald Loeb Awards. He was part of a team project that won a Goldsmith Award in 2020. Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM He also worked as a digital producer at WBUR in Boston. Jared graduated with a master’s degree in multimedia journalism from Emerson College and a bachelor’s degree in English literature from SUNY Geneseo. R.G. Dunlop | Reporter R.G. Dunlop is an award-winning investigative reporter whose work has exposed government corruption and resulted in numerous reforms. He worked 35 years at The Courier Journal in a variety of positions, including Eastern Kentucky bureau chief, Legal Affairs reporter, City Editor, and State Enterprise Reporter. Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM He has extensively covered death penalty issues, coal-mining safety and health, criminal justice matters, and the corrupting influence of money in politics. Dunlop is a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a winner of a Peabody Award. He was twice a member of teams that won George Polk Awards. He graduated from Miami University and earned a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University. 3 Eleanor Klibanoff | Reporter Eleanor Klibanoff joined the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in June 2017. She previously worked at Keystone Crossroads, a public radio project covering urban decline and recovery in the Rust Belt. She was a Kroc Fellow at NPR and a recipient of a Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting grant to cover maternal healthcare in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Originally from Atlanta, Klibanoff graduated from George Washington University Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM in Washington, D.C., with a degree in Political Communication. Jacob Ryan | Reporter Jacob Ryan joined the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in December 2017. For three years prior, he worked as a WFPL News reporter and covered issues including City Hall, transportation, public safety and housing. He is a recipient of a Peabody Award, a national Investigative Reporters and Editors award, a Sidney Award from the Sidney Hillman Foundation and numerous regional and local awards. Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM Ryan is originally from Eddyville, Kentucky. He’s a graduate of Western Kentucky University. Graham Ambrose | Report for America corps member Graham Ambrose joined KyCIR in 2020 on a fellowship through Report for America. Based in Louisville, he focuses on the underreported issue of youth services throughout the Bluegrass State. Before KyCIR, he reported for a daily newspaper in Iowa, covering the Iowa Photo: J. Tyler Franklin / LPM presidential caucuses, the fallout from the worst-ever flood of the Mississippi River and the hollowing out of the middle class. Ambrose has worked as a speechwriter, a public records redactor and a physics tutor, but his favorite job was youth baseball umpire. He studied history at Yale University, where he graduated summa cum laude. 4 “Thank you for reporting that digs deep. Truth matters. Truth matters. Truth matters. Especially in the era of gaslighting we’re living through today. Moved here from Chicago, and proud to now be a Louisville Public Media member.” — Meaghan Thomas “We so appreciate KyCIR in this age of shrinking newspapers. Being informed makes us better citizens. A heartfelt thank you, especially in this trying time!” — David and Wendi Williams “Times are tough, but we’re doubling our monthly contribution to LPM because it’s critical we have robust local and state investigations and news coverage.” — Charles Miller and Rebecca Norton 5 KyCIR By the Numbers EMAIL NEWSLETTER Our greatest audience growth in 2020 came from the release of our SUBSCRIPTIONS new podcast, Dig. Averaging 42,145 downloads per month, season GREW BY NEARLY one of Dig surpassed all expectations. When you combine Dig with The Pope’s Long Con, which continued to see impressive download 32% numbers, KyCIR podcasts recorded 628,748 downloads in 2020. Social followers grew 19% and we closed out the year with 11,343 PODCAST followers via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Much of this success DOWNLOADS was due to our on-the-ground reporting during the local protests. 628,748 Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we worked to engage with our constituents virtually. In May we held a virtual panel with local advocates and experts to discuss the effects of the pandemic 3,933 on sexual assault and domestic violence. More than 100 people attended live and the recorded video had more than 1,000 views later. MEMBERS We also held two Facebook Live Q&A sessions with reporters and a DONATED Reddit AMA on the confusion surrounding Kentucky’s unemployment insurance. We continue to connect with our audiences via social media and an email newsletter, working to build awareness of our $606,284 work and trust with our constituents. RAISED FOR KyCIR In 2020, our email subscriptions increased from 5,500 to 7,233, with OPERATIONS an average open rate of 25.6%. AND STORY EXPENSES FROM Our reach continues to be difficult to define, thanks to content INDIVIDUALS AND sharing and our many partnerships. In 2020 we published stories in FOUNDATIONS partnership with 89.3 WFPL, ProPublica, the Ohio Valley ReSource and Newsy. In 2020 we grew our membership from just under 3,500 members to nearly 4,000, with 40% of KyCIR’s members giving on a monthly recurring basis. Pairing individual gifts with foundational giving, KyCIR was self-sustaining and able to cover our own operating expenses for the second year in our history. 6 Covering a Year Unlike Any Other At the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, our mission is to protect society’s most vulnerable citizens, expose wrongdoing in the public and private sectors, increase transparency in government and hold leaders accountable.