The Assembly

Overview

The Assembly is a digital magazine covering politics, courts, higher education, culture and accountability in North Carolina, based in Durham. It describes its mission as deep reporting on "power and place" in the state.

History

The Assembly launched in February 2021, founded by Kyle Villemain, a former speechwriter for the University of North Carolina system, who set out to build a state-level publication modeled on national magazines such as The Atlantic and regional titles like Texas Monthly. Villemain raised seed funding from roughly 15 North Carolina-based angel investors before securing a $600,000 two-year grant from the Knight Foundation's Knight Growth Challenge Fund and support from Journalism Funding Partners and the Greensboro Community Journalism Foundation. The Assembly has since built a regional network, partnering with or absorbing INDY Week in the Triangle, CityView in Fayetteville, and the Border Belt Independent in southeastern North Carolina, and launched a Greensboro newsletter called The Thread. In 2025, The Assembly joined ProPublica's Local Reporting Network. As of its fifth anniversary in early 2026, the organization employed 45 people and published more than 1,000 stories a year.

Key personnel

Founder and CEO: Kyle Villemain
Executive Editor: Kate Sheppard

Location and contact info

Website
https://www.theassemblync.com