Remarkable reporting, extraordinary circumstances

Two of our features this month — the cover story and the next installment in our “Reporting On” series — share a common theme. To varying degrees, these are newsrooms and journalists operating under extremely challenging conditions.”

Gretchen A. Peck, editor-in-chief, E&P Magazine

When the striking image on E&P’s cover this month landed in my inbox, it gave me a jolt. I enlarged it on my screen, sat back in my chair and contemplated the image and the people in it. The photo comes to us courtesy of the 24^th Separate Mechanized Brigade, a front-line infantry unit of the Ukrainian Ground Forces. It features two journalists from The Kyiv Independent — Olena Zashko and Francis Farrell. They pass by, capturing video of incinerated vehicles, the likely result of a Russian missile strike. Despite the dangers, they document.

Two of our features this month — the cover story and the next installment in our “Reporting On” series — share a common theme. To varying degrees, these are newsrooms and journalists operating under extremely challenging conditions.

Several years ago, E&P began the “Reporting On” series with that theme in mind. We wanted to step into the shoes of journalists and newsrooms tasked with reporting on communities in crisis — or those covering sweeping and consequential public-policy issues. We also wanted to fully understand the resources required of a news organization to cover these major moments. So far, the series has given us intimate insight into covering natural disasters; a community shattered by a school shooting; the contentious topic of immigration and the enforcing the southern border; abortion access; and war in the Middle East.

In this issue, Alyssa Choiniere files the next installment: “Reporting On: America’s Prison Systems.” We wanted to tell this story for a few reasons. From a professional perspective, the work is intriguing and comes with inherent, unique challenges related to access, communications and safety. It’s also an underreported, understaffed, yet critically important beat. There are nearly 2 million people incarcerated in the United States, according to the Prison Policy Initiative’s 2026 accounting.

This month’s cover story transports us to Ukraine, to The Kyiv Independent — a still-young news outlet that is war-weary and war-wise beyond its years. E&P’s Bob Miller looks back at the Independent’s launch, mere months before Russia’s full-scale invasion. As you may imagine, war consumes work, life and much of the Independent’s coverage. War is both an everyday annoyance and a suffocating omnipresence.

And yet, the journalism and documentary films produced by the Independent’s team have won more than 20 awards. But as a news organization operating in unthinkable wartime conditions, the Independent should be lauded for another achievement, as well: compelling a global audience. An English-language title, the greatest percentage of readers are in the United States, but they’re seeing audience and engagement gains in other parts of the world, too. And that’s an essential part of their mission — to keep the eyes of the world focused on Ukraine.

It’s up to us not to look away.

Gretchen A. Peck is E&P’s editor-in-chief. She welcomes your emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.