Three years ago CT Mirror had a staff of eight full-time journalists, a Publisher, and a $1.1 million budget. Then we received a three-year $830,000 grant from the American Journalism Project, a new venture philanthropy group that invests in creating infrastructure for raising revenue, with the ultimate goal of funding more journalism.
Today, as we reach the end of that three-year grant, we have a much more diverse staff of 16 full-time journalists, a four-person business team, a $2.4 million budget, and a proud record of impact.
In 2022, CT Mirror staff and 2,100 donors and funders published reporting that led to reform of the state’s unclaimed property system, fullfunding for the investigative arm of the State Contracting Standards Board for the first time in its history, and 50,000 applications for private sector essential worker pandemic relief in the first week, crashing the state website.
We continued to hold government officials accountable for unethical, illegal, or eyebrow-raising behavior, including financial improprieties by West Haven government staff, the State school construction office’s bidding process, and questions about cronyism on the state pier project in New London.
This past year our economic development reporting hit its stride, we broadened the scope of our justice reporting, we re-ignited our housing beat, and we provided the state’s most in-depth, comprehensive coverage of the 2022 election.
If you already participate in publishing this CT Mirror work as a donor we thank you. If you have not made a gift to CT Mirror this year, and even if you have, please consider the importance of journalism in empowering residents, changing lives, and strengthening democracy, and that your financial support is critical to sustaining CT Mirror’s recent growth into 2023 and beyond.