Carolina Public Press
Annual Report 2020

Stephanie Carson, Manager, Community and News Partnerships and Broadcast Producer 

As the News and Community Partnerships Manager at Carolina Public Press, I thought I’d spend 2020 holding listening sessions and forums related to our reporting.

On March 13, 2020, when I got the call that my daughters’ school system was going virtual, I realized I could just toss my datebook in the bonfire. At CPP, we changed course to adapt to the new and ever-evolving circumstances. Our regular Monday morning meeting birthed the Emergency News Team, an effort we created to offer support to small newsrooms as they covered the pandemic with already limited staff, made more limited by COVID-19 illness. I also dug out my broadcast microphone from my past life, and began creating audio versions of our COVID-19 updates and eventually some of our investigative pieces. 

A year later, we have new broadcast partners and small newsrooms taking our free content. We are now members of Content Depot, a public radio powered platform to distribute content to NPR network stations across the country. 

Am I glad this last year happened? I’m not there yet, and I’m not sure I ever will be. But the pandemic spurred growth at Carolina Public Press, and I celebrate the way the crisis bonded our team and improved our work.

Jordan Wilkie, Investigative Reporter:

Carolina Public Press brought me on as a contractor, then as a full-time staff member in June, with support from Report for America. 

My primary job was to cover the 2020 elections and the threats that foreign interference, domestic misinformation and out of date technology posed to our elections even before the pandemic shifted the way many of us voted. 

When we realized what the virus could do to people in congregate settings like jails and prisons, Managing Editor Frank Taylor asked me to use my experience working in and writing about prisons to also cover the pandemic behind bars. 

Ultimately, I reported dozens of explanatory and fact-checking stories to keep readers in the loop during a chaotic election year and won an NC Press Award for my coverage of the prison system, keeping an often opaque institution accountable for how it cared for some of the most vulnerable people in the state.

Laura Lee, News Editor

While so much of our important work in 2020 revolved around deep-dive investigative reporting, the pandemic required explanatory efforts on the ins and outs of coronavirus transmission, testing and vaccination. Our analytics quickly revealed our audience’s hunger for information about the virus and what they could do to avoid it.

Through our weekly coronavirus newsletter, we gave readers the latest information not only on how the state was faring in the pandemic, but also how they could find test sites, track vaccine doses and schedule appointments. 

We transformed from not only a source of news, but to a help desk of sorts for North Carolinians in crisis. Good journalism shines light in the dark places and holds those in power to account. But in times of crisis, it does something more fundamental: it gives audiences critical information for their own well-being. Some of the most rewarding feedback I’ve received from readers is hearing how our work helped them protect themselves and their families.

Kate Martin, Lead Investigative Reporter:

When other young students obsessed about dinosaurs, I had a different fascination. Volcanic eruptions, rogue waves, tornado outbreaks and earthquakes were the subject of my intense study. I turned page after page of pictures of stoic-looking police officers and nurses who served during the 1918 flu pandemic, and I wondered what it would be like to live through a pandemic or other natural disaster.

I never expected to find out. 

As March 2020 dawned, and we realized COVID-19 would upend our carefully planned schedule, I found myself in a mad dash to find any solid information. It seemed like the ground shifted under our feet every week, while at the same time I felt the weight of duty on my shoulders to find the facts our North Carolina readers rely on so they can make decisions for their families.

It became clear early in the coronavirus pandemic that nursing home residents faced a dire fight against this cruel virus. At the time more than half of the state’s deaths were from congregate care facilities. We wanted to know where people were dying. The state wouldn’t tell us, so we wrote about it. Through dogged reporting and pestering public officials, the state started releasing updated lists containing this information twice per week. We wrote about that, too.

I am proud to be part of Carolina Public Press, an organization that supports tenacious journalism.