City Bureau is a nonprofit civic media organization based on the South Side of Chicago. We bring journalists and communities together in a collaborative spirit to produce media that is impactful, equitable and responsive to the public.

In November 2022, former Chicago Documenter Sebastián González de León founded the San Pedro Gazette in St. Petersburg, Florida, an independent newsroom with a mission to “create an informed, empowered, and critical public by creating impact-oriented journalism” and was accepted into the Google News Initiative Pre-Launch Lab.His time as a Documenter influenced him and how he shaped the ...

Project conceived by Alma Campos, Civic Reporting Fellowship alum Writing and reporting by Alma Campos, Sarah Conway and Phoebe Mogharei. Out of years of reporting, research and relationships with community members, City Bureau has built “Will That New Development Benefit Your Community?

Bettina Chang is currently a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow at Stanford University. She is a City Bureau co-founder and previously served as Director of Chicago Programs. An editor by trade, her career has spanned roles and mediums, including trade magazines, traditional newspapers, digital audience strategy, product design, newsroom training, …

Jan 27, 2025 · On an unseasonably warm day, more than 100 day laborers stand on the curb between two large Home Depot parking lots in Chatham. Venezuelans take up the corner, and Senegalese migrants stand in the middle. Ecuadorians and Colombians are at the far end of the strip. Everyone is looking for work, and ...

Feb 3, 2025 · News coverage of Chicago, produced by City Bureau reporters and Documenters. To see special projects created in our Civic Reporting Programs, go to Collections .

Feb 9, 2024 · The City Bureau network has grown exponentially over the past few years, spreading to 15 cities in 11 states across the country. We just welcomed our first executive director (hi, Morgan Malone!).Through it all, our editorial approach is both local and rooted in complex, nuanced narratives — the sticky ones so often tied to deeper, systemic issues that evade political resolution, where ...

Our Network. Launched in Chicago in 2018, the network grows with new cities and regions each year. We’re harnessing communal power, together, by inspiring, connecting and supporting civic media producers across the U.S.

6,100 Total Documenters assignments completed across the network. 200+ Newly trained Chicago Documenters 300+ Chicago public meetings covered through Documenters assignments 680 Government bodies tracked by Documenters nationally. 14 …

Search locations, dates, times and official records for your local government’s public meetings (available in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland and Akron) and sign up to get trained and paid to document these meetings and publish the results in collaboration with local journalists (available in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit).