This is our last issue for 2025! Whether you’re a long-time reader or you’ve joined in the past twelve months, thank you for supporting our little media reporting site that could. (On that note, a donation to our end-of-year fundraiser, which is still at 4% of our goal, or a follow on Instagram to get us to 1,000 followers before the end of the year would be much appreciated!)

We’ve tried to punch above our weight this year and will continue to do so to hold journalism accountable to its promises in 2026.

In this week’s issue: It’s an exclusive Objective digest (and a shorter issue) as we wrap up publishing for the year: We shared our non-comprehensive picks for best media reporting and criticism of the year. One of U.S. nonprofit journalism’s funders removes DEI section from its about page. And more on the “Pulitzers of prison news”, a contest revived after a 35-year hiatus.

Plus, the last three stories from our Civic Media Magazine are out digitally now: a call for publicly-funded media, a set of media policies for a system valuing working-class people over billionaires, and how civic media can fix the broken local news contract.

Hoping you’re all able to stay warm and healthy while spending time with loved ones this holiday season, and The Front Page will be back in your inbox on the other side of the New Year. See you then!

—James Salanga

A non-comprehensive list of The Objective’s co-directors’ and readers’ favorite media reporting and criticism in 2025. (Not included in the round-up, but sharing if you’re curious — here are Gabe’s and my Nieman Lab predictions for 2026. —James)

Read the full story.

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Knight Foundation’s current “About” page still expresses the belief “in the power of diverse perspectives to foster positive change and build stronger, more equitable, and inclusive communities,” but the section title and explicit mention of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” is no longer present.

A photo showing students of color discussing first amendment rights at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on April 2, 2016, was also removed.

Read the full story.

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2025 saw the revival of the historic journalism awards, once called the Pulitzers of prison newsrooms, after a 35-year hiatus. Reporter Natasha Ishak details the ceremony, the history of the contest, and what it’s like running a newsroom on the inside.

Read the full story.

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For the Civic Media Series, Michael Swerdlow lays out three principles for reorienting news as a public trust.

“We must accept that there is no new business model and no philanthropist who will save our free press,” he writes. “We, as the public, must do that work ourselves.”

Read the full story.

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“The moment … calls for a media system in which the needs of the working and middle classes are valued over corporate profits and the interests of billionaires,” writes Mike Rispoli of Free Press for the Civic Media Series.

What kind of policy could get us there? Rispoli puts forth five policy proposals compiled by the Media Power Collective that could nudge journalism in that direction.

Read the full story.

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In the last piece of our Civic Media Series, journalist, civic strategist, and community steward Darryl Holliday proposes a civic media-driven shift in journalism that “will position journalism not as a separate entity serving the public, but as an act of citizenship itself.”

Read the full story.

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In a new collaboration between The Objective and News Futures, 14 practitioners share their perspectives on building local, participatory, and durable information systems for the next decade.

Thanks for reading. We’ll have more for you next year.

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