Report for America announces KAXE / KBXE as a 2026 newsroom partner

Report for America announced Tuesday, Jan. 20, its selection of 2026 newsroom partners, and KAXE / KBXE is among them.

These newsrooms will receive holistic support: a dedicated Report for America corps member to provide essential community coverage, as well as tailored training and tools to promote financial sustainability in a challenging local news landscape. Journalists are now invited to apply for these open positions.

At KAXE / KBXE, our Report for America reporter will cover Minnesota’s Mississippi River headwaters region, in partnership with the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. This reporter will cover a wide variety of topics about the river basin, including agriculture, mining and lumber, tourism, environmental policy, recreation, and how Minnesotans and Indigenous communities live with and celebrate the river.

Following a rigorous selection process, incoming news outlets will welcome Report for America corps members this summer, bringing the total number of Report for America corps members in newsrooms to more than 200 by July 2026. This year, Report for America is proud to introduce several new partnership initiatives and programmatic developments.

“We’re thrilled to be working with partners who are bringing new programming, depth and scale to local news,” said Kim Kleman, executive director of Report for America. “I’m especially excited that our partnerships have the potential to expand to many more communities.”

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Welcoming 2026 newsroom partners 

Report for America’s newest host newsroom partners reflect the resilience and diversity of the local news ecosystem as it responds to urgent, emerging industry challenges.

Highlights this year include:

• Nearly half (49%) of incoming newsrooms are small newsrooms, with nine or fewer editorial staffers. The addition of a new reporter covering an essential beat in a small newsroom can have a transformational impact on their ability to expand access to local news and information for their community.
  
• 54% of newsroom partners will have their corps members cover rural communities, local government, or the environment — demonstrating an urgent need to expand these areas of coverage.
  
• 38% of newsrooms are digital-only, though many offer a digital component in addition to their primary medium. Public radio and TV stations received 11 new positions, providing a critical layer of support during a time of funding challenges for public media.
  
• All Report for America newsrooms operate in service to their community, with 65% of newsrooms being nonprofit. More than half (54%) are brand new to the Report for America network and will be hiring their first-ever corps member.

“The selected newsrooms are a strong cross-section of the current media landscape,” said Jason Blakeney, Report for America’s director of corps and newsroom excellence. “Each newsroom has been carefully selected, and we are confident in their ability to harness unique, local knowledge and provide community-centered news coverage.”

Find the list of incoming host newsroom partners and available journalist positions here.

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Building a pathway for new partnership models 

Expanding on a proven track record of existing partnerships, Report for America is proud to announce two initiatives expected to expand newsroom capacity, build community trust and grow audience reach.

In collaboration with Press Forward Blue Grass, a Press Forward initiative that seeks to strengthen democracy and foster civic engagement in Central Kentucky, Report for America will spearhead a pilot partnership with three select news outlets in the state. This collaboration aims to create a pathway for non-traditional journalism by equipping trusted community members with professional journalism training and support. Newsrooms will select these corps members through a separate process. The outlets in this partnership include CivicLex, The Woodford Sun and MediaLex.

In addition, in partnership with High Country News, Report for America has selected the following newsrooms for the Western Environmental Reporting Collaborative, with coverage spanning four states: Arizona Luminaria, Ouray County PlainDealer, Montana Free Press and Wyoming Public Media. Corps members will spend a quarter of their time producing regional Indigenous and environmental coverage in collaboration with High Country News, and the remainder of their time working to produce local stories for their newsroom.

“This partnership will enable newsrooms to expand their editorial coverage, enabling them to take on larger editorial projects thanks to an additional layer of built-in support,” Blakeney added.

Report for America is renewing its partnership with The Associated Press, supporting new statehouse and other positions in Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and Texas. Over the course of the partnership, Report for America has helped expand state government coverage by fielding 49 statehouse positions across the country.

Report for America is also expanding its years-long partnership with the Mississippi River Basin Ag and Water Desk. This year, the Desk will add six additional positions in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Louisiana.

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Corps member applications open 

Journalists are now invited to apply for dozens of open positions by Feb. 16, 2026. Applicants need only fill out one application, though they may indicate interest in multiple positions.

Beats include wildfire reporting for the Montana Free Press, community impact reporting for New Jersey Urban News, and children & families reporting for The Current GA. A full list of open positions is available here. Notably, this year Report for America has introduced a sports corps, with five positions covering the role of sports in communities. These include a beat dedicated to covering women’s sports at The Oregonian, as well as a traditional youth sports beat at Grice Connect.

“Report for America invites journalists from diverse backgrounds to join the existing fabric of Report for America reporters and newsrooms, who ensure that critical local issues are amplified,” said Earl Johnson, vice president of recruitment and alumni engagement at Report for America. “With the addition of our sports corps, we are adding newsroom capacity to cover the economic impact of sports, build local identity and highlight athletic achievements, which can help to promote reader engagement.”

New corps members will join a group of more than 750 current and former Report for America journalists. More than 80 percent of Report for America alumni continue to work in the field.

Selected corps members will begin working at their host newsrooms on July 13, 2026. Interested journalists are encouraged to attend an information session and explore the benefits of becoming a corps member: reportforamerica.org/apply.