Mississippi Today

Mississippi Today was founded in 2014 as an independent digital news service by former NBC Chairman Andrew Lack, who spent $1 million to help fund its 2016 launch.^[1] The publication covers state and local government affairs and community issues including education, health, economic development, poverty and race as well as Mississippi's social culture. It provides archives and data sets regarding Mississippi demographics. It is focused on watchdog journalism related to the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is headquartered in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

It adheres to the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics and the Policy on Editorial Independence for Institute for Nonprofit News (INN) Member Organizations, subscribing to INN's standards of editorial independence. The publication retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of the organization and maintains a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. It accepts gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of its activities, but its news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support. It operates on an annual budget of $1.9 million.^[2] It also may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but maintains editorial control of the coverage. It cedes no right of review or influence of editorial content.

History and structure[]

Mississippi News and Information Corporation, operating as Mississippi Today, was incorporated in Mississippi as a nonprofit organization on Oct. 3, 2014, and was granted its exemption from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code on March 6, 2015. It is supported in part by grants from foundations, including $250,000 grants from both the Knight Foundation and the Ford Foundation, by the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics at the University of Mississippi, and via tax deductible contributions from donors, members, sponsors and by the community at-large. Ex-Governors, Republican Haley Barbour and Democrat William Winter have contributed. All sources that have assisted with $1,000 or more are publicized on the organization's website.^[3]

Personnel[]

Co-Editor Fred Anklam Jr., is a 1977 graduate of the University of Mississippi. He spent more than six years working for The Clarion-Ledger, including a reporting role on the team that earned the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Public Service in 1983 for its coverage of Gov. Winter's education reform package. After reporting from Washington, D.C., for Gannett News Service, he spent 29 years at USA Today as a reporter and retired in May 2015 as senior night editor. That year he was awarded the University of Mississippi’s Silver Em Award for his contributions to journalism. His co-editor Dennis Moore returned to Mississippi after working at USA Today where he was Managing Editor of the Life section, and The Orlando Sentinel. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Mississippi and reported and edited for The Clarion-Ledger. He served as editor-in-chief for the Orlando Sentinel's award-winning Florida magazine. At USA TODAY he covered the entertainment industry and reported from the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Vancouver. then directed the staff's coverage of national breaking news events. Moore received the Meek School of Journalism and New Media's Silver Em award in 2017 for his contributions to journalism in Mississippi.^[4]

News Editor Ryan L. Nave, who also reports on state government, previously was news editor at the Jackson Free Press, where he reported on local, state and national issues. Before coming to Mississippi in 2011, he was a freelance journalist in Albuquerque, N.M., Boulder, Colorado, and Seattle covering environmental and business issues. Prior to that, he covered local and state government and Barack Obama's presidential campaign for the Illinois Times. Nave was a 2010-2011 Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellow at the University of Colorado-Boulder and a 2004 Academy for Alternative Journalism fellow at Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism. A native of University City, Mo., he earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Missouri. in 2010-2011, before moving to Mississippi, he was a Ted Scripps Environmental Journalism Fellow at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

Reporter Kendra Ablaza, from Los Angeles covered government and politics at the Orange County Register in Southern California and at the Laredo Morning Times. She is a graduate of California State University-Long Beach, where she studied political science and journalism.

Larrison Campbell is a Greenville, Mississippi native, returning after more than a decade on the East and West Coasts. She got her start in journalism writing for the Hartford Courant. She worked in development at ABC and as a writer at CBS, and TBS. She has a master's degree from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's from Wesleyan University. Kelsey Davis, a reporter based in the Delta covering education, came to Mississippi from Montgomery, Alabama, where she worked at the Montgomery Advertiser covering courts. There she won awards for her reporting on public housing and the life of a parolee re-entering society. Prior to that she lived in Texas where she wrote about toxic waste. She graduated from Auburn University and was raised in Mobile, Alabama.

Adam Ganucheau, who covers issues involving state government, has been a staff reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson and The Birmingham News/AL.com. Ganucheau, a graduate of the Meek School of Journalism at the University of Mississippi, is from Hazlehurst.

Sereena Henderson is the publication's social media/audience engagement coordinator and hails from Pass Christian on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She graduated in broadcast journalism from the University of Mississippi. As a college student, she interned at WLOX-TV 13 in Biloxi, Mississippi. She also served as a freelance reporter for WTVA in Tupelo and Memphis, Tennessee's Action News 5. In college her TV multimedia coverage of the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina earned a Mississippi Associated Press Broadcasters award and a Society of Professional Journalist National Mark of Excellence Award.

Alex Rozier covers data and culture and creates graphics for Mississippi Today. He attended Boston University’s College of Communication.

Kayleigh Skinner covers issues involving state government and education. She reported on local and statewide education issues for The Hechinger Report and Chalkbeat Tennessee. She most recently served as a general assignment reporter for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis. Kayleigh is also a graduate of the Meek School of Journalism.

Aallyah Wright is a Clarksdale native and a graduate of Delta State University with a degree in journalism with a minor in communications and theater. Before joining Mississippi Today as a Delta-based reporter, Aallyah worked as an intern for the Bolivar Commercial in 2016. She also has worked collaboratively with the Center for Investigative Reporting and Reveal alongside the Delta Arts Alliance on an ongoing interactive community news project that created a platform for stories from Cleveland, Miss., through the lens of history, equality and change titled the Cleveland Yearbook.

Jackson native Kate Royals previously was a reporter for the Clarion-Ledger covering education and state government. She has won awards for investigative reporting on the state's prison system and campaign finance laws. She was a news producer at MassLive in Springfield, Mass. She attended Millsaps College and holds a master's degree in communications from Louisiana State University’s Manship School of Mass Communications.^[5]

Adam Ganucheau covers issues involving state government, and was a staff reporter for The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson and The Birmingham News/AL.com. He graduated from the Meek School of Journalism at the University of Mississippi.

Rick Cleveland, Mississippi Today’s sports columnist, was inducted into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in August 2017, joining many of the sports figures he has written about in 50-plus years covering Mississippi sports. He has been honored as Mississippi Sportswriter of the Year a record 10 times by the National Sports Media Foundation. Rick was executive director and historian of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. He wrote "Mississippi's Greatest Athletes," with the proceeds directed toward funding the Museum. His other three books include "Boo, A Life in Baseball, well lived," a biography of late 1940s star pitcher for the Boston Red Sox Dave Ferriss, who had an exceptional, four-decade pro and Mississippi collegiate coaching career.^[6] Before joining Mississippi Today, he was the sports editor of The Clarion-Ledger for many years.^[7]

References[]

External links[]

• Mississippi Today website