Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
Kansas City, Missouri, USA
The Beacon is a nonprofit online news outlet covering the Kansas City metropolitan area and statewide issues in Kansas and Missouri, focused on public-interest journalism including health care, education, economics, environment and civic engagement.
The Beacon was founded by Kelsey Ryan, a former investigative journalist at the Kansas City Star and 2018 Pulitzer Prize finalist, and launched March 12, 2020, earlier than originally planned in order to provide COVID-19 pandemic coverage. It received initial funding from a Google News Initiative Innovation Challenge in 2019. The Beacon was named Emerging Publisher in 2020 by Local Independent Online News Publishers and received the Community Champion Award from the Institute for Nonprofit News in 2021. In 2021, with $1.1 million from the Wichita Community Foundation and additional support from the American Journalism Project, The Beacon expanded into a regional network and launched a second newsroom, the Wichita Beacon, in Kansas; that Wichita newsroom was shut down in October 2024 after raising nearly $4 million, though The Beacon has continued statewide coverage of both Kansas and Missouri from Kansas City.
CEO: Stephanie Campbell
Editor-in-Chief: Scott Canon
Website
https://thebeaconnews.org
Sources
American Journalism Project. The Beacon
Nieman Journalism Lab. Midwestern News Nonprofit The Beacon Shuts Down Its Wichita Newsroom