The GroundTruth Project announces reorganization to more deeply focus on flagship programming

March 19, 2025 —

The GroundTruth Project announces reorganization to more deeply focus on flagship programming

Through an extraordinary decade of growth for The GroundTruth Project, the nonprofit news organization’s flagship programs Report for America and Report for the World have transformed into a movement calling a new generation of journalists to service at a time of crisis in local news.

These service programs have never been more urgently needed in democracies across the globe, and we have been fortunate to scale the programs by securing transformational investments from the Knight Foundation and other major donors. We’ve developed a pioneering formula that helps newsrooms match our national funding with their local sustainability initiatives. This straightforward business model has allowed the organization to create exceptional and impactful programs that consistently demonstrate excellence through a competitive selection process, high rates of retention for reporters and partner newsrooms, and high levels of satisfaction from program participants. 

In order to sustain this momentum, The GroundTruth Project CEO Rob Zeaske is today announcing important changes to continue positioning the organization as a global leader in supporting local news. The organization will further focus on its programmatic work and will begin to sunset the award-winning editorial work we have done under the banner of The GroundTruth Project. This transition will allow us to strengthen our flagship programs, distinguish our Report for America and Report for the World brands and deepen our impact.  

As a part of these changes, The GroundTruth Project’s founder, Charles Sennott, is leaving the organization to establish a new, independent entity where he will continue to lead the award-winning journalism that distinguished The GroundTruth Project as a premier editorial brand.

Sennott will move on to focus on his own reporting and thought leadership through his GroundTruth newsletter on Substack under a separate and independent venture, GroundTruth Media Partners LLC, which officially launches today. In the coming months, “The GroundTruth Project” will undergo a thoughtful renaming and rebranding effort to reflect these changes. 

The GroundTruth Project became the springboard for Report for America (with co-founder Steve Waldman in 2017) and then Report for the World (with co-founder Kevin Grant in 2022). Just after that second successful launch in 2022, Sennott stepped aside as CEO and moved into the role of Editor-in-Chief to start the next chapter at GroundTruth by focusing much more of his time and energy on our editorial brand, and now he will be writing yet another chapter. 

Zeaske said, “With the vast majority of our work now focused on our two flagship programs, this is the perfect time for Charlie to have a chance to dedicate himself more fully to his own journalism in the field, a place where he excels and is most at home. Please join me in wishing him all the best and please be sure to subscribe to Charlie’s GroundTruth newsletter on Substack where he brings 40 years of experience as a journalist and social entrepreneur to frame an understanding of these turbulent times.” 

Sennott will remain an ex-officio member of our board of directors, and the organization is grateful to him for his vision, his passion to inspire and support a new generation of journalists and his many years of leadership. 

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to work with such a committed and talented team as we found a way to offer a whole new generation of journalists a chance to serve local communities and to do work that truly matters,” Sennott said.

“My deep belief is that the best reporting is done on the ground, out there in the field and our organization and the flagship programs it launched have come to embody that. I depart my day-to-day role at The GroundTruth Project confident that together we have established a legacy and that Report for America and Report for the World will continue to scale and restore local journalism from the ground up,” Sennott added.

What hasn’t changed throughout The GroundTruth Project’s organizational evolution is the urgent need for engaged and informed communities across the country and the world. Local, trusted news provides that foundation, and continued community support of Report for America and Report for the World will fuel essential newsmaking.

Contact CEO Rob Zeaske at rzeaske@thegroundtruthproject.org

Contact Charles Sennott on his new email sennott@groundtruth.org or through his executive assistant Komal Trivedi at trivedi@groundtruth.org

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