When Spotlight PA launched more than five years ago, our goal was to hold public officials accountable and investigate powerful institutions in a way they had never been before.
Our dedication to public service journalism that serves all Pennsylvanians has only grown since then. Over the past year, we took this commitment to the next level through impactful investigations, an unparalleled explanatory election effort, a first-of-its-kind TV partnership, social videos, engaging interactives, an AI-powered election chatbot, and more.
Our election coverage explained the stakes of major 2024 races to the lives of voters, examined the systems that underpin elections and their administration, and combated lies through pre-bunking. In total, we produced 257 in-depth election articles last year, including 25 voter guides in English and 12 in Spanish.
However, we knew this critical reporting wasn’t enough — we had to get it in front of the people who needed it the most. We created fun, informative videos on row office candidates for Instagram; hosted virtual events to answer voter questions about the candidates and the election process; and helped lead a live “Job Interview”-style forum in Pittsburgh with the top candidates for attorney general. Our democracy editor also partnered with community groups in Pittsburgh to lead an in-person workshop for Spanish speakers on how to find trustworthy information about topics like elections.
Our interactive “Your Next” tools allowed voters to state their preferred policy positions on a host of key issues and told them which primary and general election candidates in several key races matched them best. The attorney general, auditor general, and treasurer interactive tools were used to completion more than 30,000 times in the leadup to Nov. 5.
Beyond our election work, Spotlight PA’s journalists continued producing one-of-a-kind investigative work presented in a mobile-first format. They uncovered warning signs about a troubled transplant program, explored the devastating consequences of a failing elder abuse safety net, and got results for customers of a neglected rural water company.
We also undertook an ambitious, months-long effort to center the voices of Pennsylvanians most affected by the opioid epidemic — people often excluded from decisions about the state’s response and the spending of billions in settlement funds. This multi-part reporting and engagement strategy included the first searchable database of how tens of millions in opioid settlement dollars are being spent in Pennsylvania, along with an interactive tool that lets readers compare the funding choices they would make to those of a secretive state oversight board.
To ensure our work reached the people who needed it, Spotlight PA signed a first-of-its-kind deal with 5 Nexstar-owned TV stations in Pennsylvania. This enabled us to turn our journalism into broadcast-ready segments for millions of people. We produced 8 election-focused television packages that aired across the stations, as well as segments on our biggest investigations.
We won nearly 30 awards in 2024 alone, many of which celebrated our newsroom’s public service work focused on the election and how the state is spending its opioid settlement money.
