Who's behind the news?
Who's behind the news?
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Newsjunkie.net is a resource guide for journalists. We show who's behind the news, and provide tools to help navigate the modern business of information.
Use of DataNewsjunkie publisher Gordon Whiting expands on his recent article
What the fight over the Institute of Museum and Library Services reveals about power, information, and public institutions
Data science engineer offers blueprints and tools for indie research
Ari Lamstein is a software engineer and technical trainer who builds open-source tools to help researchers and journalists analyze federal data.
Marshall Project data journalist Jill Castellano on her methods for working with flawed federal data
Jill Castellano is a Pulitzer Prize winning data reporter with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that covers the criminal justice system. Castellano contextualizes The Marshall Project's investigations with data-driven research, creates data visualizers, and writes methodologies to help others conduct similar research.
Morgan Kriesel expands on his most recent Prairie Fire newsletter
Morgan Kriesel on the growing shift from public data as a civic resource to data as a tool of surveillance
Researcher with Black & Pink comments on federal data's role in the erasure of LGBTQ+ prisoners
Kenna Barnes is the Senior Director of Advocacy and Programs at Black & Pink National. During her time there, she has created programs to support people who have been impacted by the carceral system, especially those who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who have HIV. Barnes has also helped shape Black & Pink’s research work, such as the Advancing Transgender Justice Survey, a collaborative report led by the Vera Institute.
Tangle founder Isaac Saul on fairness, bias, and the business of being “nonpartisan”
Isaac Saul, the founder of Tangle, a newsletter-based media outlet that aims to present a wide range of political perspectives in a single daily product.
The pioneering cartoonist discusses how he found his way into journalism, why comics offer something unique, and what ke...
Joe Sacco is a comics journalist, a form he helped bring into the contemporary mainstream through books like Palestine, Safe Area Goražde, and Footnotes in Gaza.
Independent research and records preservation institute
Thomas S. Blanton is an American journalist, editor, and archival researcher, and director of the National Security Archive. Interviewed April 8, 2026, by Newsjunkie publisher Gordon J. Whiting and editor Morgan Kriesel
On inequality, climate, and building a nonprofit news model
Newsjunkie managing editor Peter Landau speaks with Danny Feingold, publisher and founder of Capital & Main, about the outlet's origins, editorial mission, audience strategy, and the future of independent reporting.
Criminal justice researcher at the Vera Institute on combating Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) data gaps
Dr. Jennifer Peirce is a criminal justice researcher at the Vera Institute, a nonprofit policy and research organization dedicated to prison reform. In this conversation with Newsjunkie staff reporter Morgan Kriesel, she discusses the challenges of reaching marginalized populations, why researchers should collaborate with advocacy groups, and ways to combat top-down erasure of our most vulnerable peers.
San José Spotlight’s co-founder Josh Barousse on filling a news desert, getting funding, and disrupting the status quo
Ramona Giwargis and Josh Barousse launched San José Spotlight, a nonprofit newsroom focused on local government, policy, and civic engagement in Santa Clara County.
An interview with Vispi Balaporia, President of the Asiatic Society of Mumbai
Newsjunkie publisher Gordon Whiting speaks with Vispi Balaporia about the mission, collections, challenges, and future of the historic Asiatic Society of Mumbai.
Data behind bars: Incarceration, missing federal statistics, and why erasure is dangerous
Wanda Bertram is a communications strategist at the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that produces widely cited research on mass incarceration and the broader criminal legal system.
Lynda Kellam on the Data Rescue Project and the battle for accessible info
Lynda Kellam is a data librarian and director of research at an Ivy League institution, and a founding member of the Data Rescue Project (DPR).
A veteran’s view on the evolving economics of information flow
In this edited Q&A, conducted on October 10, 2025, Newsjunkie publisher Gordon Whiting spoke with Christopher Simmons about the origins of online newswire service Send2Press, the value of long-tail distribution, how Google changed the wire business, and what AI means for information flow now.
An Interview With Internet Archive Founder Brewster Kahle, October 17, 2025
Gordon Whiting, publisher of newsjunkie.net, sat down with Internet Archive founder and Digital Librarian Brewster Kahle to discuss the future of information gathering.
“The coolest job in the world” eliminated by RIF
Interview with fired US government health communications specialist Aryn Melton Backus, who co-founded the public heath advocacy group Fired but Fighting.
Former editor shares story of groundbreaking indie investigative journal
Shubhanga Pandey is the former chief editor of groundbreaking South Asian journal, Himal Southasian. He joined Newsjunkie publisher, Gordon J. Whiting, for an interview at UCLA in May 2025.
