WASHINGTON, D.C. — States Newsroom, the nation’s largest nonprofit state-focused news organization, today announced that founder, CEO and publisher Chris Fitzsimon plans to retire in June 2027. Fitzsimon will stay on as a consultant for approximately six months. States Newsroom is engaging an executive search firm to assist in the process of hiring his successor.
“When we started talking about the need for more statehouse reporting in 2017, I couldn’t have imagined where we would all be today, providing essential reporting from every state and reaching an audience in the tens of millions during this crucial battle over the fate of our democracy,” Fitzsimon said. “Our success comes from our team of journalists and staff whose talent and dedication amaze me every day, as well as to the thousands of individual and institutional donors who support our work. This strong foundation gives me more confidence than ever about the future of States Newsroom.”
Fitzsimon, a veteran journalist, founded States Newsroom in 2018 with an initial goal of filling the gap he saw in statehouse reporting in his home state of North Carolina. With early success in a handful of state capitals and funding from multiple philanthropies committed to supporting free nonpartisan journalism, Fitzsimon led States Newsroom’s expansion across the country and by 2024 launched or acquired state-focused news outlets in 39 states. The news organization reached content-sharing partnerships with state-focused outlets in the 11 remaining states, meaning States Newsroom could deliver news from all 50 states.
Fitzsimon also oversaw the launch of a States Newsroom D.C. Bureau that is now one of the industry’s largest Washington news bureaus. And in 2024, he led States Newsroom’s acquisition of Stateline, the nonprofit news service founded in 1998 that reports and analyzes trends in state policy, from The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Now nearing its 10-year anniversary, States Newsroom under Fitzsimon’s leadership has grown from a start-up minded news network into an award-winning and respected news organization that has become an essential part of the media ecosystem during a tumultuous time in U.S. and global politics. States Newsroom is now expanding by deepening its audience reach through newsletters, social media, podcasts, audio reporting and video.
States Newsroom journalists regularly partner with The New York Times, ProPublica, MS NOW, C-Span and other major media outlets. In June, New Hampshire Bulletin reporter William Skipworth won the prestigious Livingston Award for local reporting. In 2025, Jennifer Shutt, senior reporter for the D.C. Bureau, won the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress from the National Press Foundation. In 2024, Alabama Reflector editor Brian Lyman was a Pulitzer Prize finalist for commentary writing. And hundreds of other States Newsroom reporters have won state and regional journalism awards.
“We used to think of ourselves as a scrappy startup,” Fitzsimon said. “We’re still scrappy, but we are also now a mature, well-run organization thanks to a solid, forward-thinking leadership team and our hard-working journalists across the country. I know it’s cliche, but I really cannot wait to see what comes next.”
About States Newsroom:
States Newsroom is the nation’s largest nonprofit news organization. We shine a light on policy and politics in state capitals around the nation and we provide that coverage for free. In an era of rampant disinformation and news deserts, we provide nonpartisan coverage of the state issues that most affect people’s daily lives.
Leading studies cite States Newsroom as key to filling the void in coverage left by staffing cuts at legacy media outlets. According to one study, the overall percentage of reporters working for nonprofit newsrooms in the statehouse press corps has more than tripled since 2014 and now makes up the largest portion of statehouse reporters in 10 states and the second largest in 17 states.
We run — or partner with — news outlets in all 50 state capitals.
We fully fund newsrooms in 39 states, each with its own website. They are:
Alabama Reflector – alabamareflector.com
Alaska Beacon – alaskabeacon.com
Arizona Mirror – azmirror.com
Arkansas Advocate – arkansasadvocate.com
Colorado Newsline – coloradonewsline.com
Florida Phoenix – floridaphoenix.com
Georgia Recorder – georgiarecorder.com
Idaho Capital Sun – idahocapitalsun.com
Indiana Capital Chronicle – indianacapitalchronicle.com
Iowa Capital Dispatch – iowacapitaldispatch.com
Kansas Reflector – kansasreflector.com
Kentucky Lantern – kentuckylantern.com
Louisiana Illuminator – lailluminator.com
Maine Morning Star – mainemorningstar.com
Maryland Matters – marylandmatters.org
Michigan Advance – michiganadvance.com
Minnesota Reformer – minnesotareformer.com
Missouri Independent – missouriindependent.com
Daily Montanan – dailymontanan.com
Nebraska Examiner – nebraskaexaminer.com
Nevada Current – nevadacurrent.com
New Hampshire Bulletin – newhampshirebulletin.com
New Jersey Monitor – newjerseymonitor.com
Source New Mexico – sourcenm.com
NC Newsline – ncnewsline.com
North Dakota Monitor – northdakotamonitor.com
Ohio Capital Journal – ohiocapitaljournal.com
Oklahoma Voice – oklahomavoice.com
Oregon Capital Chronicle – oregoncapitalchronicle.com
Pennsylvania Capital-Star – penncapital-star.com
Rhode Island Current – rhodeislandcurrent.com
South Carolina Daily Gazette – scdailygazette.com
South Dakota Searchlight – southdakotasearchlight.com
Stateline – stateline.org
Tennessee Lookout – tennesseelookout.com
Utah News Dispatch – utahnewsdispatch.com
Virginia Mercury – virginiamercury.com
Washington State Standard – washingtonstatestandard.com
West Virginia Watch – westvirginiawatch.com
Wisconsin Examiner – wisconsinexaminer.com
States Newsroom also has content-sharing agreements with 11 leading nonprofit newsrooms: CalMatters (California), Connecticut Mirror, Spotlight Delaware, Honolulu Civil Beat, Capitol News Illinois, CommonWealth Beacon (Massachusetts), Mississippi Today, New York Focus, The Texas Tribune, VTDigger (Vermont), and WyoFile (Wyoming).
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