ProPublica is dedicated to rising the range of our office in addition to the journalism group extra broadly, whereas making certain equal alternatives for all. Annually we publish a report on these efforts. That is the report for 2025; here are our past reports.
Our Dedication
We imagine that it’s crucial to workers our newsroom and enterprise operations with folks from a broad vary of backgrounds and views. We’re dedicated to eradicating boundaries which have historically excluded certified candidates, together with folks with disabilities, these from low-income backgrounds, veterans, folks of coloration and girls.
“For 10 years ProPublica has reported on its efforts to develop and diversify its workers. That vital work continues,” ProPublica President Robin Sparkman mentioned. “We’re dedicated to masking a variety of points in our journalism. To do this successfully we want staff with different views and backgrounds.”
ProPublica has continued to increase, rising from 186 full-time staff firstly of 2024 to 193 in 2025.
We’ve added sources to the workers supporting this work, together with hiring a expertise acquisition supervisor who has labored to refine our hiring course of to make the candidate expertise extra honest and constant. We’ve created organizational partnerships to offer entry to investigative journalism coaching and construct group with journalists from a wide range of backgrounds. We’ve fostered mentorships in order that any worker can profit from a colleague’s experiences and we spearheaded the creation of a shared vacation calendar to advertise better consciousness of various spiritual celebrations and keep away from scheduling conflicts.
Our Variety Committee includes greater than 50 ProPublicans who volunteer their time to work on initiatives which might be pitched and run by the workers. The present co-chairs are Vianna Davila and Liz Sharp.
Our work on this space can be seen in our journalism. All through 2024, we reported on the adverse effects of abortion restrictions on women, together with those that died after their states banned the process. Our reporting resulted in new federal guidelines that went into impact final yr which might be aimed at speeding repatriations of Native American remains. Final February, the U.S. Division of Justice began working with a sheriff’s office in Wisconsin on a written policy on how to reply to incidents involving folks with restricted English proficiency; this adopted our reporting on how a grammatical mistake in Spanish led sheriff’s deputies to wrongly blame a Nicaraguan dairy worker for his son’s loss of life. Our reporting on systemic failings by the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat people with mental illnesses, together with in instances through which veterans went on to kill themselves or others, resulted in commitments to extend staffing by the VA secretary.
We additionally companion with information organizations throughout the nation. Final yr, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed a bill into law that curtailed the controversial contract-for-deed actual property offers and included better protections for patrons; his motion adopted a 2022 investigation by ProPublica and the Sahan Journal that revealed questionable real estate transactions that left members of Minnesota’s Somali and Hispanic immigrant communities prone to dropping their houses. In the meantime in Virginia, the state’s legislature final yr approved a statewide commission to investigate the role of public colleges and universities in displacing Black communities, following our reporting on the difficulty with the Virginia Heart for Investigative Journalism at WHRO.
Breakdown of Our Employees
As with final yr, we collected mixture knowledge about our software and interview course of. Out of 27 positions stuffed in 2024, 52% of the finalists recognized as ladies and half recognized as being a part of a racial/ethnic group aside from solely non-Hispanic white. Fifty-six % of the folks we employed recognized as ladies and 37% recognized as being a part of a racial/ethnic group aside from solely non-Hispanic white.
At first of 2025, the proportion of all ProPublica workers members who recognized as solely non-Hispanic white was 63%.
For the seventh yr in a row, extra ladies than males work at ProPublica. In editorial positions, ladies represented 52% of the workers.
About 2% of our workers determine as nonbinary or transgender.
Since 2022, now we have collected demographic details about our board of administrators. Of the 15 folks on the board, 47% recognized as ladies. About 67% of the administrators recognized as non-Hispanic white, in comparison with 64% final yr.
As we’ve mentioned since 2015, a part of our dedication to range means being clear about our personal numbers. Right here’s how our workers breaks down.
(Please word that the info relies on staff’ self-reported data. Recognizing that some folks might determine as a couple of race however not determine as an individual of coloration, in 2022 we started stating numbers by way of individuals who “solely determine as non-Hispanic white.” The worker data is as of Jan. 1 of every yr. Managers are outlined as workers members who supervise different folks, and that group doesn’t embody all editors. Percentages might not add as much as 100 due to rounding. Fellows, time-limited staff and part-time staff usually are not included on this evaluation.)
Race and Ethnicity: All of ProPublica
Race and Ethnicity: Editorial
Race and Ethnicity: Managers
Gender: All of ProPublica
New Initiatives
Added new workers: A part of our purpose in 2024 was to construct capability on the staff that’s chargeable for hiring and supporting ProPublicans. We introduced on a seasoned expertise acquisition supervisor with over a decade of recruiting expertise, together with current years at high information organizations. Their addition ensures our staff has the capability to completely help hiring managers whereas making a considerate, well-structured recruiting expertise for each candidate.
Strengthening honest and inclusive hiring: We’ve taken vital steps to make our hiring course of much more honest, clear and inclusive. By implementing structured interviews throughout the group, we’re making certain each candidate is evaluated persistently. We’ve additionally elevated collaboration with hiring groups via extra frequent consultations, making certain we adhere to honest and nondiscriminatory hiring practices. On the candidate aspect, we’ve added extra touchpoints and improved communication, so candidates are stored extra updated on the method of their purposes.
Our Ongoing Efforts
ProPublica thinks about its efforts within the following methods: constructing the pipeline (for us and for all of investigative journalism); recruiting expertise and enhancing our hiring course of; and inclusion and retention.
Constructing the Pipeline
Convention stipends: ProPublica partnered with Investigative Reporters & Editors to sponsor journalists to attend the annual IRE conference. We additionally sponsored a journalists of coloration mixer, open to everybody on the convention, which was attended by near 100 folks.
Rising Reporters Program: This system gives monetary help and mentorship to 5 college students for whom investigative journalism would possibly in any other case be inaccessible on account of price, to allow them to pursue early profession alternatives within the discipline. This system is open to all and features a $9,000 stipend, digital programming and an all-expenses paid journey to an IRE convention on laptop assisted reporting. That is this system’s ninth yr, and it’s coordinated by Talia Buford.
Knowledge Institute: In 2016, ProPublica journalists based The Knowledge Institute, a workshop for journalists on how to use data, design and code. ProPublica finally began working with Open Information, which coordinates scholar and teacher participation and gives help for challenge administration and occasion planning. The Ida B. Wells Society for Investigative Reporting and the Heart for Journalism & Democracy now manage this in-person occasion. Final yr a half dozen present and former ProPublicans served as trainers on the institute, which is targeted on empowering folks with knowledge abilities they’ll convey again to their very own newsrooms.
Investigative Editor Coaching Program: ProPublica began an Investigative Editor Training Program in 2023 for journalists who need to discover ways to handle, edit and elevate investigative tasks that expose hurt and create influence. The curriculum for the yearlong program was designed by ProPublica Managing Editor Ginger Thompson and Deputy Managing Editor Alexandra Zayas. This system is open to all and tries to deal with the trade’s important must broaden the ranks of investigative editors. We chosen 10 folks to attend a weeklong coaching at our New York workplace. Additionally included in this system had been a further 4 ProPublica staffers who aspire to grow to be story editors. Individuals heard from ProPublica editors on completely different features of the craft, from story choice and memos to managing the reporting and digging into the primary draft. They had been additionally paired with ProPublica senior workers as mentors and acquired extra digital coaching for the rest of the yr. We provided this coaching once more in 2025.
Recruiting and Hiring
Affinity conferences: Final summer season, ProPublica recruiters and newsroom workers attended the nation’s three largest affinity journalism conferences, sponsored by the Nationwide Affiliation of Black Journalists, the Nationwide Affiliation of Hispanic Journalists and the Asian American Journalists Affiliation. The newsroom sponsored the NABJ Investigative Job Power mixer and the Visible Job Power Moneta Sleet Picture Competitors on the group’s annual conference in Chicago.
Wage transparency and equity: ProPublica is dedicated to paying its staff pretty and transparently and works to make sure that there is no such thing as a improper discrimination in compensation. Because the fall of 2022, ProPublica has printed wage ranges for all posted job openings, no matter geography. Our workers lately shaped a union, and future wage will increase can be a part of a collective bargaining settlement.
Interview swimming pools: We attempt for an interview pool that features not less than one certified candidate from an underrepresented background. Interview swimming pools usually are not capped and search to incorporate all equally certified candidates.
Freelancer information: ProPublica publishes a guide for freelancers interested in pitching an investigation to ProPublica. We designed the information to formalize the pitch course of and stage the taking part in discipline for the way freelance tasks are introduced and thought of. Submissions can be reviewed by editors on a rotating foundation. ProPublica will reply to anybody who completes the shape, even when their proposal will not be accepted.
LRN candidate outreach: Editors with ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network proceed to do customized recruiting and provide workplace hours so native journalists can talk about their accountability work with a member of the staff. LRN editors had been additionally current at journalism conferences, together with affinity group gatherings — the place they met with candidates in an effort to assist them with the project-development and software course of. This system additionally commonly faucets the expertise staff for leads of promising candidates. As well as, the staff of editors commonly discusses the range of voices in this system and adapt our work to fulfill a variety of wants.
Inclusion and Retention
Welcoming new hires and specializing in inner tradition: Our inclusion subcommittee consists of about 30 ProPublicans who meet month-to-month to think about methods to make the newsroom extra inclusive and honest, whereas constructing help for each other as colleagues. Mariam Elba and Megan O’Matz chair this subcommittee. The group created a software to assist workers determine coaching and growth alternatives; fostered mentorships for brand new hires; and spearheaded the creation of a shared vacation calendar to advertise better consciousness of varied spiritual celebrations and keep away from scheduling conflicts. An inner story membership meets commonly to debate notably fulfilling tales, podcasts or books. The committee spearheaded the establishment of voluntary breakout rooms after all-staff conferences, the place workers are randomly assigned to teams who talk about a immediate created by the committee to spark dialog and construct group. The committee works to enhance communication, share information and deal with challenges confronted by a far-flung workforce.
Sensitivity subcommittee: Led by Colleen Barry, this group serves as a useful resource for editors and reporters to faucet the collective mind belief of our newsroom when engaged on notably delicate tales about suicide, sexual abuse, baby abuse, racial trauma and extra. The committee maintains a Slack channel the place anybody can share sources and the place editors and reporters can solicit suggestions on drafts or ask questions on how finest to report on delicate topics. When a “sensitivity learn” or the discussions through the modifying and manufacturing of a narrative are notably instructive, the subcommittee has shared these experiences at range committee conferences so any classes may be extra broadly utilized.
ProPublica Peer Partnership Program: That is an inner program, organized by Jodi Cohen and Lisa Track, that’s open to all and matches ProPublicans with a mentor or peer companion to develop new abilities and have somebody to show to for assist navigating office or profession questions. Final yr, greater than 50 ProPublicans participated on this program, which was began in 2018.
Unconscious bias coaching: Since 2021, ProPublica has used Paradigm Attain to offer ongoing coaching for employees to create a office tradition that’s intentional, inclusive and excessive performing. The coaching is supplied to all new workers.
Variety Committee workplace hours: Now we have continued to supply an off-the-cuff digital hangout twice a month the place ProPublicans can chat with the Variety Committee co-chairs to brainstorm or chat in a extra intimate setting outdoors of the month-to-month committee conferences.
All in favour of Working Right here?
Right here is our jobs page, the place we put up new positions, together with fellowships, full-time and short-term roles.
