ProPublica selects Tennessee Lookout for newsroom partnership

ProPublica, a national nonprofit news organization that produces investigative journalism, has selected the Tennessee Lookout as a partner newsroom through its Local Reporting Network program.

Beginning October 1, reporter Adam Friedman, who joined the Lookout in February 2023, will work on an investigative series over the next year as part of ProPublica’s 50 State Initiative. The initiative, launched in April, aims to expand the scope of ProPublica’s work at the local and regional level and to broaden support for local journalism.

Tennessee Lookout reporter Adam Friedman will conduct an investigative series through ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network. (Photo: John Partipilo)

“We are incredibly honored to be selected to join ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network: our coverage of state government has been building towards this type of partnership since we launched in 2020,” said Lookout Editor Holly McCall. “And Adam is the right person for this project. He has strong investigative journalism skills that he will hone through this project.”

Prior to joining the Lookout, Friedman worked at the Tennessean and the Jackson (Tennessee) Sun, where he led an award-winning series looking into the city’s financial mismanagement and corrupt dealings with its local minor league baseball team. At the Lookout, he was part of a team that won a Society of Professional Journalists’ Green Eyeshade Award for its coverage of the Covenant School shooting and its subsequent fallout and in 2024, and won two first place awards from the Tennessee Press Association in 2024 for best single feature and best investigative reporting. He is a graduate of Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

ProPublica was founded in 2007-2008 with the belief that investigative journalism is critical to U.S.  democracy and the organization covers a range of topics including government and politics, business, criminal justice, the environment, education, health care, immigration, and technology.