New investigative team to bring more reporting to Santa Barbara News-Press

A new, expanded journalism team is coming to Santa Barbara as part of our pursuit of watchdog journalism that serves the community.

NEWSWELL, the nonprofit collective that supports the News-Press and other newsrooms across California, is launching a statewide investigative journalism team to publish more high-impact stories that affect our communities. 

“Local newsrooms can have tremendous impact when they get the right support. Everything we’ve built at NEWSWELL so far has helped us prove this,” said Nicole Carroll, NEWSWELL’s executive director. “This new expansion empowers us to take the next step toward a new model for nonprofit news.” 

The new team will be staffed by five investigative journalists based in and around NEWSWELL communities, and every piece of their work will focus on two priorities: impact and audience connection.

The new team includes reporter Lillian Perlmutter, who investigates immigration and border issues for NEWSWELL newsrooms. Her work for the News-Press includes a special report that revealed immigration arrests at county jails happening far beyond what the county officially discloses. 

Her most recent investigation, “Dying on Camera,” demonstrates how the team will approach its work. Perlmutter last year began investigating the death of a migrant woman outside San Diego. She learned that the spot where the woman died was in clear view of a federal border surveillance camera. Her investigation ultimately found that more than 130 people had died within range of those cameras in recent years, and that many of their remains were found in locations where the cameras had a clear view. The project, published in partnership with other reporting by MIT Technology Review, led to similar findings across the entire 2,000-mile border. 

“An investigation like this one proves the concept,” said Josh Susong, NEWSWELL’s investigative director, who will lead the new team. “We can pursue a story with national scope. At the same time, the expertise of a locally based journalist makes the impact real.” 

The team also includes new hires of journalists for roles across the state, plus a story producer focused on impact and audience interaction. 

The new investigative team is made possible with a grant from Arnold Ventures. 

NEWSWELL’s other newsrooms have also seen success in investigative reporting, including at Stocktonia in Stockton. That newsroom this year was named finalist for the First Amendment award from the prestigious Poynter Prizes, and won the Society of Professional Journalists’ Eugene S. Pulliam First Amendment Award, honoring the newsroom’s “fearless reporting” in service to its community. 

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