The decline of traditional newsroom staffing has left one of journalism’s most important beats increasingly thin: statehouse reporting. Across the country, fewer reporters sit in legislative chambers or scrutinize policy decisions that directly shape taxpayers’ lives. Into that vacuum have stepped a range of new models, from nonprofit investigative organizations to university-backed reporting initiatives.
One of the fastest-growing entrants in that space is The Center Square, a nonprofit newswire focused on government accountability reporting. Its publisher, Chris Krug, says the organization was built to address what he sees as a structural hole in the American news ecosystem.
The “donut hole” in American news coverage
Krug describes the organization’s founding mission as a return to a style of journalism that once defined the industry’s core public service role.
“The focus that we’ve taken is really what I view as the donut hole in American news media today,” he explained. “That sort of callback to old-school government accountability reporting that used to be bread and butter for all of us.”
He said that when he first entered the profession, covering government institutions was considered foundational work for journalists. “When I got into the business, that was the way you covered government if you were a journalist, putting that check on power and authority,” he said.
Although the organization is still relatively young, Krug says its scope has expanded quickly. “We’re almost seven years old now, but we’ve grown to a capacity that allows us not only to cover statehouses around the country, but we’re now hard-card credentialed in the White House and able to ask questions directly to the president,” he said.
Despite that growth, Krug views The Center Square as a newcomer competing against legacy institutions that have had decades to build influence. “We’re competing head-to-head with the AP. They’ve been around since, I think, 1846, so we’re still kind of the new kids on the block.”
A distribution-first strategy
Unlike many digital-native newsrooms that prioritize building their own audience platforms, The Center Square distributes its reporting through existing media outlets. Krug said the model was designed specifically to support local publishers who no longer have the resources to cover state government on their own.
“A lot of local market publishers and broadcasters simply do not have the horsepower to cover their local market and also cover the statehouse,” he said. “In some cases, that’s a massive gap.”
For many local outlets, that gap directly affects the communities they serve. “They have a readership whose lives are impacted by what’s happening at the state level and certainly at the federal level too,” Krug explained.
Because of that need, the organization structured its model around partnerships rather than direct competition with local media. “We build a distribution network among partners who need coverage they can’t produce on their own,” he said.
That network has grown rapidly in a short period of time. “In seven years, we’ve built relationships with more than 1,350 partners across all 50 states,” Krug said, noting that the combined reach of those outlets dramatically expands the organization’s impact. “Every day we reach about 141 million Americans.”
Krug said the scale of that network allows The Center Square’s reporting to appear widely across the country. “Roughly 53% of Americans on any given day have access to a Center Square story either at no cost or through their local media outlet.”
Responding to criticism and questions of bias
The Center Square’s origins and funding sources have drawn criticism from some media observers who question whether the organization’s coverage reflects ideological leanings. Krug addressed those concerns directly, explaining that the current organization was built independently from earlier entities associated with the Franklin Center.
“The organization that was founded in 2009 was not the one that I adopted when I had the opportunity to take over in 2017,” he said. “There really was no organization there.”
Krug said the nonprofit's structure emerged partly from regulatory uncertainty during the early years of the Trump administration. “I had applied for a 501(c)(3) and went through the process of creating a new one that I was going to build my operation in,” he said. “There was a tremendous amount of uncertainty about whether new applications were going to be approved.”
As a result, he said, the team acquired an existing nonprofit entity and rebuilt it from the ground up. “There was no continuity with the board. There was no continuity with the staff. I had already put together a small team that we were going to build with.”
When it comes to accusations of ideological bias, Krug said he prefers to point to independent assessments of the organization’s journalism. “I tend to look at what more credible auditors in the market say about us and whether we are trustworthy and accurate,” he said. He specifically cited the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart as one example. “Last year, it included us among the top 30 news organizations in the country for accuracy and fairness.”
Drawing the line between reporting and advocacy
For Krug, maintaining credibility in an increasingly polarized media environment requires clarity about what type of journalism an organization practices. “I think it starts with the lane that you declare,” he said. “We focus on government accountability. That’s where we focus [over 99%] of the work that we do.”
The organization also operates under strict editorial rules designed to reinforce that focus. “First and foremost, we do not publish opinions of our own,” Krug said. “Straight news is the business we’re in.”
Speed and volume are also central to the operation. “We want to move stories quickly with accuracy, velocity and frequency,” he explained. “We publish anywhere from 65 to 70 stories a day.”
Krug said The Center Square also deliberately avoids certain storytelling approaches that have become more common in nonprofit journalism. “One rule we’ve established is that we don’t do solutions journalism because I find it inauthentic,” he said.
He believes part of the reasoning lies in how audiences interpret media today. “Based on Pew research, only about one out of four American readers can tell the difference between a straight news story and an opinion story.”
The decline of print newspapers, he said, has further blurred those distinctions. “In the heyday of newspapers, we had pages emblazoned with the word ‘Opinion.’ It was unmistakable,” Krug said. “That distinction has been blurred by the way Americans consume news today.”
Building a sustainable nonprofit model
Although The Center Square operates as a nonprofit organization, Krug said sustainability still requires thinking like a business. “I come from this industry, and I believe nonprofits should find ways to pay their own way whenever possible,” he said.
To do that, the organization has developed several complementary revenue streams alongside its journalism operation. “For example, we own the Illinois Radio Network, which serves more than 100 stations covering every county in Illinois,” Krug said.
The organization also operates a video platform designed to document government proceedings without commentary. “We run Blueroomstream.com, where we’re affectionately known as the C-SPAN of Illinois,” he said. “There is no commentary, just straight broadcast-quality video of what’s happening in the statehouse.”
Those efforts help reduce reliance on philanthropic funding alone. “We’re not fully dependent on philanthropy,” Krug explained. “We’re doing everything we can to pay our own way.”
Looking ahead, he believes the model will continue to evolve as the media industry adapts to new economic realities. “My goal five years from now is that we’re bigger, faster and stronger than we are right now,” Krug said.
At the same time, he sees The Center Square as part of a broader effort to preserve the public-service mission that once defined American journalism. “By good fortune, I’ve had experiences on both sides of the house,” he said, referring to his background in both editorial and business leadership. “That has put us in a position to do something meaningful and authentic that actually benefits the industry that I love.”
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