Eight years ago, I embarked on the most ambitious project of my journalism career: I had been offered a job as a reporter at a startup called Searchlight New Mexico, a new, independent newsroom dedicated to investigative reporting on the most critical issues facing our state, with a special focus on New Mexico’s children and families.
That mission had a gravitational pull for me. In my prior work as a reporter covering children and families in public radio newsrooms, I was keenly aware of how vital investigative reporting was for New Mexico. I knew Searchlight could do great things.
It didn’t take long to realize that my enthusiasm for Searchlight’s project was well warranted. Year after year, my colleagues and I reported one groundbreaking story after another, bringing to light countless abuses of power, political scandals, and failures of state officials to protect New Mexico’s kids.
We revealed how the New Mexico Children, Youth and Families Department was rubber-stamping licenses for private foster care agencies with histories of safety violations, a practice that placed children in the hands of abusive foster parents.
We uncovered an international human trafficking operation that was placing immigrant laborers in horrific working conditions.
We showed how a university president was spending taxpayer dollars with lavish excess; how dark money was financing lobbying in the state legislature; how juvenile inmates were abused by guards; how the state was warehousing its most traumatized foster youth in homeless shelters.
There are far too many examples to list.
Our work led to countless state and federal investigations, legislation, civil and criminal lawsuits, and other impacts that made a material difference for the people of this state. Eight years after I took the leap to become one of Searchlight’s first reporters, I’ve never been prouder to call myself an investigative journalist.
This kind of journalism is more important today than it has ever been. At the same time, newsrooms face greater challenges than ever before. Declining readership, shrinking revenue streams, political hostility and economic uncertainty have led to countless newsroom closures and mass layoffs. Outlets across the country, from vital local papers like the Las Cruces Sun-News to legacy media giants like Sports Illustrated and The Washington Post, have been hit hard. Searchlight hasn’t been immune to those challenges.
So today, Searchlight is embarking on a new chapter — one that will allow us to not only continue our investigative reporting, but to expand and grow our coverage in new ways, all while positioning ourselves for stability amid the financial challenges impacting the news industry.
As of this week, we are formally joining forces with The Santa Fe New Mexican’s philanthropic journalism fund to launch a newly reorganized Searchlight. We now will be housed within The New Mexican’s newsroom, sharing their offices and administrative team and working in close partnership with the 176-year-old paper.
We will be a part of the New Mexican’s Public Service Journalism Fund, a philanthropic arm of the newspaper. This new arrangement allows us to continue receiving the tax-deductible support of foundations and individual donors that have made our work possible from the outset. It also offers a huge cost savings — now, the money we receive will go directly to support our journalism, without the burden of office space rent, payroll costs, and other administrative expenses.
Though we have a new office and a new structure, one thing will not change: Searchlight will continue as an editorially-independent, nonpartisan newsroom, and we’ll continue to produce the same high-quality journalism that our readers have come to trust.
Meanwhile, I’m taking on a new role as Searchlight’s investigations editor, where I will oversee our reporting and maintain our focus on investigative journalism in the public interest. I’ll also continue working as a reporter, which means I’ll get to keep writing about children, education, immigration and more. Next year, we’ll begin hiring more reporters to expand Searchlight’s reporting further.
I’m especially excited to work alongside Bill Church, the celebrated newsman who took over as The New Mexican’s executive editor last year. Bill and I share an enthusiasm for investigative reporting and a commitment to bringing critical stories to our readers. I’m certain we’ll do great work together in the coming years.
Searchlight has always had a special relationship with The Santa Fe New Mexican. In no small way, this new partnership is a return to our roots — we were founded in 2017 by Ray Rivera, who at the time was the executive editor at The New Mexican. Ray continued to serve on Searchlight’s board and was instrumental in supporting our work from the beginning. And Rob Dean, who guided Searchlight through its early years as our executive director, served as The New Mexican’s editor for more than two decades.
It took much longer than anticipated to finalize this partnership, but that process is now complete. I’m thrilled that we’ve found a model that, with your continued support, will keep Searchlight going strong.