The Assembly, Now With Reporting From Our Nation’s Capital

The Assembly has been selected as one of six newsrooms in the first cohort of the NOTUS Washington Bureau Initiative.

NOTUS–short for News of the United States–is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit news outlet founded by the former publisher of Politico. The effort is meant to provide local and regional newsrooms with the kind of coverage lots of outlets used to have with a reporter based in the nation’s capital. A NOTUS reporter will be paired with our team to develop and pursue Washington-based stories.

The Washington Bureau Initiative is part of the broader journalism education and training program of the Allbritton Journalism Institute (AJI). The initial cohort also includes newsrooms in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and California.

Tim Grieve, the editor in chief of NOTUS and executive director of AJI, said that the newsrooms chosen for the pilot program are highly collaborative, independent,  and in close touch with their communities.

“In just a year, NOTUS has established itself as a nonpartisan news source that’s read and trusted by members of Congress, White House officials and other Washington insiders,” Grieve said. “We’re excited to partner with great local newsrooms to expand the reach of our journalism and to help voters back home keep tabs on their representatives and their government.”

For The Assembly, it has never been more important to have a reporter on the ground in Washington who can cover our delegation and federal developments as they relate to North Carolina. With policy changes coming at lightning speed and major questions on issues like rebuilding Western NC post-Helene, we’ll need eyes and ears in a place where many key decisions are made.

“This partnership will help deepen and expand our ability to translate policy and political dynamics to our readers back home,” said Assembly founder Kyle Villemain.

About The Assembly

Launched in February 2021, The Assembly now has 40 full-time employees working across the state.

Our statewide network includes our regional newsletters, The Dive in Wilmington and The Thread in Greensboro, and three regional outlets: CityView in Fayetteville; INDY Week in the Triangle; and the Border Belt Independent, which covers Bladen, Columbus, Robeson, and Scotland counties.

We’re a subscriber-supported, for-profit outlet focused on great magazine-style journalism at the state-level and timely, prescient regional reporting that serves the needs of local communities. We partner with other outlets in the state and nationally, and our stories are regularly cited in outlets such as Politico, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Axios.