ProPublica

NEW YORK, NEW YORK, USA·ANNOUNCED OCT. 15, 2007·propublica.org

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit investigative journalism organization founded by Herbert and Marion Sandler, launched in January 2008 under founding editor-in-chief Paul E. Steiger.

Overview

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit investigative journalism organization based in New York City. It produces investigative reporting distributed free of charge to news partners and the public, covering government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration and technology. ProPublica is organized as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation.

History

ProPublica was publicly announced on October 15, 2007, in New York, and began publishing in January 2008. It was founded by Herbert and Marion Sandler, the former chief executives of Golden West Financial Corporation, who committed multi-year funding through their Sandler Foundation. The Sandlers recruited Paul E. Steiger, the recently retired managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, to serve as ProPublica's founding president and editor-in-chief. At launch, the organization's board of directors included Herbert Sandler as chairman, along with Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University, Alberto Ibargüen of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, former U.S. Rep. James A. Leach, and Rebecca Rimel of The Pew Charitable Trusts. ProPublica was designed, once fully staffed in 2008, to employ 24 full-time reporters and editors—which the organization described at the time as the largest staff in American journalism devoted solely to investigative reporting.

Stephen Engelberg, who joined as founding managing editor in 2008, became editor-in-chief on January 1, 2013, succeeding Steiger. Richard Tofel, ProPublica's first employee and founding general manager, served as president from 2013 until his retirement in 2021; Robin Sparkman, founding CEO of StoryCorps, was elected president and co-CEO effective September 8, 2021. ProPublica's editorial staff unionized with the NewsGuild of New York in 2023.

Notable works

• 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Public ServiceProPublica won its ninth Pulitzer Prize for "Life of the Mother," a series by reporters Kavitha Surana, Lizzie Presser and Cassandra Jaramillo with photographer Stacy Kranitz documenting the deaths of five women—Porsha Ngumezi, Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain in Texas, and Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller in Georgia—who died after doctors delayed care under states' abortion bans. It was ProPublica's second consecutive Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, following its 2024 win.

• 2024–2025The "Life of the Mother" series also won the 2024 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism and was selected for the Nieman Foundation's 2024 Taylor Award for Fairness in Journalism.

• Since 2010ProPublica's investigative reporting has received a total of nine Pulitzer Prizes, including prior wins for investigative reporting (2010), national reporting (2011), explanatory reporting (2016), public service (2017), feature writing (2019) and national reporting (2020), according to the organization's own account.

Key personnel

• Editor-in-Chief Stephen Engelberg

• President & Co-CEO Robin Sparkman

• Founding President & Editor-in-Chief Paul E. Steiger Served 2007–2012; historical

• Founding Chairman Herbert Sandler

Audience

ProPublica reports in all 50 states and partners with local newsrooms nationwide. According to the MacArthur Foundation, ProPublica has more than 190 full-time staff, including regional reporting hubs in the Midwest, South, Southwest and Northwest, in addition to its New York headquarters.

Location and contact info

Headquarters 155 Avenue of the Americas, Floor 13
New York, NY 10013

Legal Name Pro Publica, Inc.

Tax ID 14-2007220

Website https://www.propublica.org