WHAT WE DO

We power paywall-free news with a public service mission because people need to know what’s happening in their communities, and people in charge need to know someone’s watching.

🔎 Deep dives.

We produce revelatory, investigative pieces that reveal injustice, seek accountability and advance solutions in the public interest. We don’t chase the 24-hour news cycle or write opinion pieces.

👊🏾 Sharing the news. 

The Beacon invests in increasing the shared capacity of local newsrooms by collaborating with media partners. Our stories are available for republishing. 

💡 Radically transparent and independent.

We love to talk about our professional procedures and commitment to accurate, fair and complete journalism. We practice full transparency in every aspect of our funding. We’re editorially independent, and our news judgments are not influenced by donors. 

💪🏽 Community-powered media.

We engage diverse perspectives to make decisions with our community as part of our journalism. Our growth plan ensures that writers and editors telling stories come from diverse backgrounds.

📊 A data-driven newsroom.

The Beacon combats misinformation and spurs reform by working to access public records and help readers understand measurable patterns based on investigative findings and facts.

🙌🏼 A new model of local news.

The Beacon is locally-controlled and managed by a board of governance and editorial staff in Missouri and Kansas. Our business is designed to reduce overhead so our focus can be on bringing the community together around sustainable local journalism.