Mission Local rounded out 2025 very well: In February, Nieman Lab, the Harvard-headquartered journalism institute, released its list of the top-read nonprofit newsrooms at the end of last year. And there we were, sitting at No. 17 — across the whole country.
We were keeping company with newsrooms that are far larger, with many more reporters and much, much bigger budgets. It is a small coup that we have grown from a neighborhood outlet into a citywide paper at a time when the news industry is hemorrhaging reporters and readers — it is, in fact, nothing short of miraculous, and a testament to the team we have built here.
Today, we’re sharing that news — and many more 2025 accomplishments — with our impact report. It’s second ever look-back at the past year — the most-impactful stories, the growth in readers and donors, the (tremendous) growth in our team, and a look at our future plans.
Here are the highlights:
- We won first place awards for our BigMoneySF series (California Journalism Awards), election coverage (California Journalism Awards), alternative courts (SPJ NorCal) and 16th and Mission coverage (SPJNorCal), among others. We were named best community news site from the San Francisco Press Club. We were even a finalist for “business of the year” from LION, the national trade group of independent newsrooms!
- We wrote more than 250 dispatches from 16th and Mission over more than 200 days after Mayor Daniel Lurie announced City Hall would be “relentless” in tackling street conditions.
- We had our largest intern cohort ever, hosting 14 interns. They broke important stories, like Philz being sold to a private equity firm, and were a constant presence at immigration court and on the streets.
- We got 1,200 new donors, meaning there are now more than 3,300 of you supporting us — thank you!
Mission Local continues to do one thing well above all else: punch above our weight. We have grown from four staff members in 2020 to a newsroom of 17 — read it! — today. Our budget has grown by a factor of 10 in that time, from about $388,000 in 2020 to a hair over $3 million today.
And we have expanded our coverage: It’s not just the Mission District anymore. We are in half of San Francisco’s neighborhoods with dedicated local coverage, and tackling the biggest news stories citywide.
Thank you for supporting us all this time. You can read more about this growth across the city, our financial health, our accolades, and more by viewing the full report below.