Local Accountability Reporting

Olivia Bensimon/NYCity News Service

The Local Accountability Reporting program prepares journalists to report on the intersection of people and power — from the grassroots level on up — to generate stories rooted in equity and primed for impact.

Learning to do local reporting well equips journalists with the tools to cover any beat, anywhere, from the community to the national stage. Local reporting informs national stories, and is often where they start.

There’s no more ideal training ground for local accountability reporting than New York City. All the crucial battles over equity are being played out here — encompassing everything from housing and education to immigration and healthcare and far more. Add a wide array of identities and cultures, set against the backdrop of a vibrant city with a history of triumph and injustice, and you’ve got the world outside every subway stop.

Local Accountability Reporting, the successor to the J-School’s pioneering Urban Reporting program, trains journalists to produce stories driven by people, rooted in data and informed by politics and policy. It’s a formula designed to generate stories that hold decision makers responsible — and that get action.

Our alumni are working everywhere from NPR stations (WNYC, Connecticut Public Radio) and television outlets (NY1, WPIX) to major legacy national news outlets (The Wall Street Journal, The Associated Press, NBC News) and high-impact nonprofit news sites (ProPublica, The Texas Tribune, THE CITY). They’re united in all making a difference, while making a living.

FAQs

It’s an ever-growing list, but let’s start with housing, education, immigration, justice, health, climate, transportation and elections. And if there’s something you think we should be offering, tell us!

Our Faculty

urban reporting

Student and Alumni Work

Here’s a sampling of work by our students and alums:

  • The J-School’s investigative reporting class and Equity Through Data Project produced “Are You Traveling Over Troubled Bridges?,” an investigation co-published in 2025 by THE CITY, that revealed widespread safety issues with New York City spans.
  • The J-School’s investigative reporting class produced Day Care Danger, an investigation that revealed holes in the childcare safety net in New York and beyond. The project earned national honors from the Society of Professional Journalist and Investigative Reporters and Editors in 2025.
  • Mike Reicher, ’09, earned a finalist slot for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting for his work on a Seattle Times investigative series that revealed how the Washington state government spent $1 million per day on construction projects that failed to protect endangered salmon populations or honor tribal treaty rights.
  • Angela Hill, ’07, was part of the Washington Post team that won a 2024 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for “American Icon,” a series that chronicled the gruesome realities of the AR-15, a weapon that has left a violent mark on the U.S.
  • Linda Villarosa, ’13, a professor at the J-School, earned a Pulitzer Prize finalist slot in 2023 for her book. “Under the Skin: Racism, Inequality and the Health of a Nation.”
  • Roxanna Asgarian, ‘11, published the multiple award-winning 2023 book,“We Were Once a Family,” her investigation into a tragedy of foster youth that unraveled a decade-long nightmare of alleged abuse and malnourishment that ended in murder.
  • Claudia Irizarry Aponte, ‘18, co-authored an award-winning series for THE CITY about the challenges faced by New York’s Deliveristas. Her stories  led to reforms aimed at improving the conditions facing the largely immigrant app-based food delivery workforce.
  • Connecticut Public’s The Accountability Project, while led by Walter Smith-Randolph, ’10, earned a national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2023 for its contribution to continuing coverage of the Sandy Hook massacre.
  • Ann Marie Awad, ’13, hosted the “On Something,” the award-winning Colorado Public Radio podcast exploring the political, legal and cultural effects of cannabis legalization.

Contact Us

Do you have a question about the Local Accountability Reporting program? If so, please contact us.

Jere Hester
Director of the Local Accountability Reporting Program