Dear Readers –
INDY’s identity as a newspaper has many layers. To some, it’s their go-to source of local music, arts, and culture coverage. To others, it’s where they find coverage of town council, their neighbors, and local issues. And many know it as the place to send a letter to the editor to make their voice heard, or where they got their first byline as a young journalist.
For 40 years, INDY has also had another element: influential political endorsements.
There has always been tension between doing great journalism and making endorsements in races. In the past, with other strong outlets around, INDY could stake out a lane that did both. But given the gaping local news void today and our own limited resources, we see our main priority as filling the vast need for original, rigorous reporting on those races.
That’s why, as we’ve talked through our plan for 2026 and beyond, we’ve come to the decision to step away from that role and end political endorsements.
This decision comes with mixed emotions; stepping away from any long-standing tradition is hard. We know readers have relied on the clarity and accessibility of INDY’s endorsements as they navigate local elections and we’re committed to continuing our sharp and clear election analysis.
But making endorsements means taking an institutional position on which candidates we find best, which can undermine reader trust in the fairness of our reporting. It also saps our journalists’ time and resources that could be spent on reporting insightful and in-depth news about those races—which we think is the most important work we can do right now when it comes to supporting democracy and informing readers.
We believe there are lots of local political organizations with strong voices. We believe there are far too few local journalism organizations with the capacity and depth to uncover the facts and backstories that keep you informed. Our attention will be focused on providing reporting, analysis and candidate questionnaires that keep readers informed about key elections and help them make the best decisions when they go to the polls.
This change will set us up to do more journalism, convene more conversations, and be a catalyst for nuanced debate about the Triangle’s biggest issues.
This week we hosted 75 engaged Durham readers for a public conversation about how to make the region’s big job announcements work for every resident in the city, not just new arrivals. In January, we hosted 150 curious folks in Cary for a public launch event of our new 3-time-a-week reporting newsletter for Western Wake County; a new initiative to fill the yawning gap in local news coverage across a complex and interesting swath of the Triangle.
At a time when national outlets like the Washington Post are cutting hundreds of journalists, we’re adding staff. INDY’s team of full-time editors and reporters is larger than three years ago, when it first joined The Assembly Network–a locally owned group of outlets across North Carolina that focus on in-depth reporting on power and place.
Moving forward, you’ll see us leaning into political reporting, like our definitive piece on the Foushee-Allam congressional primary race, foundational reporting on the race to succeed Lorrin Freeman as Wake DA, and comprehensive work on the contested state Senate primary in Durham and a House swing district in Southern Wake County.
This election cycle, INDY’s team interviewed nearly 50 candidates and is on track to publish about 30 election stories in addition to over 80 candidate questionnaires before Primary Day, in our quest to inform Triangle voters.
We want to hear your thoughts on this change, and our focus moving forward (email us at [email protected]). And we’re excited to do more local reporting that holds power to account and helps make a complicated place easier to understand.
With thanks,
Kyle
Kyle Villemain is the founder of The Assembly Network, an independent group of news outlets that includes the INDY as well as statewide and regional teams across North Carolina.