Axios Charlotte receives investment from Knight Foundation to hire investigative reporter

This grant will enable us to better serve Charlotte by producing investigations and enterprise projects that serve the public good.

Local media impact: The New York Times, BuzzFeed News, and Axios recently published stories about local media outlets across the country that have laid off staff amid the economic fallout from coronavirus.

BuzzFeed News described the situation as an “extinction event” for local news.

In Charlotte, local outlets are trying new things. The Charlotte Observer announced that some non-urgent news updates would require a subscription to read. Alt-weekly Queen City Nerve is transitioning to a paid-subscription model. The 141-year-old Charlotte Post launched a subscription drive.

Meanwhile, WFAE, QCity Metro, The Charlotte Ledger, La Noticia, qnotes, and Queen City Nerve received individual grants from the Facebook Journalism Network for coronavirus-related coverage.

Unsettling reality: At a time when people need local news to keep them informed about a deadly virus and how it’s affecting their community, local outlets from Cleveland to New Orleans to San Diego are on the brink.

Here at the Agenda, we’re feeling it, too. Audience is skyrocketing (we now reach more than 1 million people each month) while revenue has gone down. But we’ll be okay. We’re not going anywhere, and we will not have layoffs.

And this new grant from The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation now allows us to invest in deeply reported coverage you care about. You should expect us to break more big news stories, hold the powerful accountable, and become a voice for the vulnerable.

Job posting: The first step is for us to hire a world-class journalist to join our 10-person team. We just posted the new Public Service Reporter role on our job board. If there are journalists whose work you love and admire, please share it with them. Thank you for your continued support!