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Climate.gov used to be one of the most useful public resources for climate information: plain-language explainers, expert blogs, charts, maps, and graphics from NOAA.

Neel Dhanesha reports for Nieman Lab that the site lasted 15 years before the Trump administration gutted it in 2025, disbanding its team through layoffs and unrenewed contracts.

Now, three former NOAA staffers are bringing the project back under a new name: Climate.us. Led by Rebecca Lindsey, Climate.gov’s longtime editorial lead and program manager, the new nonprofit site is restoring the archives and trying to continue the mission outside government.

The challenge is scale. Climate.us launched with three full-time people, compared with the 10 who ran Climate.gov.

Lindsey estimates it would take about $1.8 million a year to restore 60% to 70% of the old program’s work.

🔗 Know more about Climate.us at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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3 days ago

Stars and Stripes has long offered one model for government-funded journalism: public support paired with editorial independence.

In a piece republished by Nieman Lab from The Conversation, Cindy Elmore writes that this model works only when support comes with no political strings attached.

The paper receives a Defense Department subsidy that covers roughly half its budget. Its journalists have also long had editorial freedom to report on the military communities they serve, including stories that cast military leadership in an unfavorable light.

That independence is now under pressure.

On August 21, the Pentagon fired the paper’s publisher, editor, and a reporter after Stars and Stripes published a series of stories critical of the Pentagon.

Elmore argues that government funding can support journalism, but only when leaders protect the press even when the coverage does not go their way.

🔗 Read the full piece through the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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10 days ago

Donald Trump has declared Lake Ontario to be “Lake America,” after last year’s similar declaration that the Gulf of Mexico was the Gulf of America.

Joshua Benton writes for Nieman Lab that while Trump can control what the federal government calls bodies of water, he has had far less success getting news organizations to follow.

Using Media Cloud, Benton analyzed mentions of “Gulf of Mexico” and “Gulf of America” in news stories from Feb. 1, 2025 to Aug. 26, 2026.

Across national outlets, Democrat-favored outlets, and Republican-favored outlets, “Gulf of Mexico” remains the more popular term.

Even Republican-favored sites mostly stopped favoring “Gulf of America” less than three months after Trump’s executive order.

🔗 More on Joshua Benton's analysis at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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18 days ago

California lawmakers have passed a bill that could generate as much as $40 million a year for the state’s newsrooms.

Hanaa’ Tameez reports for Nieman Lab that AB 2222, the Community Newsroom Employment and Workforce Sustainability Act, would create refundable tax credits for news outlets based on the number of journalists they employ.

The credits would support full-time and part-time journalists, with an additional “new hire” credit for organizations that expand headcount.

As Rebuild Local News’s Matt Pearce put it: “If you hire more people, you get more money. If you lay people off, you get less money. If you don’t employ anyone, you don’t get anything.”

The bill now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

🔗 Read more at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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19 days ago

What happens when Siri uses a publisher’s reporting to answer a question? Apple may be considering a model in which the publisher gets paid.

Apple has approached news organizations about supplying news and other up-to-date information for a revamped, AI-powered Siri, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The company has reportedly discussed a nine-figure budget for publisher payments.

One proposal described by the Journal would use variable compensation: Publishers would be paid when Siri uses their content. That would differ from many existing AI licensing agreements, which have generally involved fixed payments in exchange for broader access to publishers’ work.

Apple already uses a somewhat similar approach with Apple News+, where payments to publishers are tied to the share of clicks they generate on the platform.

Sarah Scire has the report in Nieman Lab.

🔗 Read via the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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24 days ago

SPJ has proposed revisions to its code of ethics, its first update since 2014.

The proposed code does not use the term “AI.”

The committee behind the revisions said it avoided the term because it might “date” the code, but generative AI still shaped many of the proposed changes.

The draft adds language on identifying misinformation and disinformation, verifying the “provenance and authenticity” of information and sources, and avoiding fabricated content that could be confused with reality.

It also says journalists remain ethically responsible for their work, regardless of the tools or technologies used.

Andrew Deck has the report in Nieman Lab.

🔗 Read more at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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a month ago

Anthropic’s plan to watermark Claude-generated text raises an awkward question: What happens when making AI writing detectable changes the writing itself?

Claude’s new system will create detectable patterns by sometimes choosing less-likely words during generation, such as “auto” instead of “car.”

Daring Fireball’s John Gruber argues that even near-synonyms carry different meanings, and deliberately steering word choice could come at the expense of precision and quality.

For Nieman Lab, Joshua Benton looks at the debate over AI text watermarking, and what it means for the words these models choose.

🔗 Read more at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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a month ago

If a news outlet announces a website launch, you might think it’s safe to assume it’s a news website that’s launching. But that’s not what Chicago Public Media has in mind for chicago.com.

Instead, it’s teaming up with New_ Public, a nonprofit working to reimagine online public spaces, to launch a network of online communities for Chicago neighborhoods. Chicago.com will host the network, which will be powered by Roundabout, the local community platform incubated by New_ Public over the past year. The partners will launch five neighborhood pilots this fall, and will recruit paid, contract “community stewards” to moderate conversations in each neighborhood.

“This is a community platform, not a news site — it’s very much not a news site,” Chicago Public Media CEO Melissa Bell said. “It’s crucial that we don’t think of this as a publishing platform.”

Read more at the link in bio. Chicago Public Media teams up with New_ Public to build its own social network by @niemanlab

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On August 11, 2023, local law enforcement seized electronics and reporting materials from the Marion County Record in a raid that provoked a national outcry over the blatant press freedom violation in small-town Kansas.

The raid led to multiple federal lawsuits against the county government, public officials, and the city, accusing them of retaliating against the newspaper for its coverage.

Last fall, Marion County agreed to pay $3 million to three journalists and a city councilor, settling some of those lawsuits. And on August 11, the third anniversary of the raid, the city of Marion settled with one of those reporters,
Phyllis Zorn, agreeing to pay her $850,000, the Kansas Reflector reported.

The costly settlement is a vindication of press freedom at the local level in a year and political climate in which that freedom faces unrelenting stress tests.

Other lawsuits against the city remain outstanding. But for Zorn, who retired and moved elsewhere in Kansas after receiving settlement money from the county last fall, the latest settlement ends a yearslong ordeal that has taken a severe toll on her health.

Read the full story at the link in bio. Remember that raid on a small-town Kansas newspaper?

The city has agreed to pay one reporter $850,000. taken in Marion, Kansas by @niemanlab

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a month ago

Predatorgate opens with an animated phone vibrating on a blackened screen.

The game is based on an investigation into the Predator spyware scandal in Greece and shows what it is like to be in the shoes of a journalist under threat of illegal surveillance.

In a story originally published by the Global Investigative Journalism Network and republished by Nieman Lab, Bhavya Dore, a journalist based in Hyderabad, writes about innovators turning investigations into video games.

The story looks at games built from reporting on spyware, election corruption, illegal cocoa smuggling, asylum, and work visas, and asks what happens when investigative journalism becomes something audiences can play through, not just read.

🔗 Read the full story at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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a month ago

A year after Congress ended federal funding for public media, the situation is mixed.

The worst-case fears have not fully materialized, partly because of a surge in public support. Some stations received donations far above normal levels, giving them breathing room after the cuts.

However, the support may not last, and layoffs have continued.

Semipublic’s Public Media Layoffs Tracker counted 550 public media jobs lost between July 18, 2025, and May 27, 2026.

The impact has also been uneven. Some states have stepped in to help, while others have added their own cuts. Rural and tribal radio stations have been especially hard-hit. Some universities are also divesting public media licenses or reducing station support.

The crisis is pushing more stations toward mergers, collaborations, and new cooperative agreements.

For Nieman Lab, Laura Hazard Owen rounds up where public media stands one year after the federal funding cuts.

🔗 Read the full report at the link in bio. by @niemanlab

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