Jody DiPerna
When we started talking about forming the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism in March of 2020, we did not know how the readers would respond or how sustainable it would be, but we knew that we wanted to fill important news gaps here in Western Pennsylvania. We wanted to lean hard into our own expertise and our commitment to community.
We are incredibly proud of the work that our fierce little team has been able to produce these past years. We wrote stories we never expected to write. We hit unexpected roadblocks. We went to court to get information — and won. We talked to all kinds of people from Pulitzer Prize winning writers to everyday people who do hard work on the ground in Pittsburgh to address long-time inequities and make the region a healthier and more vibrant place.
We made connections which both enriched our reporting and motivated us to do better work.
Our Director Brittany Hailer has moved on to work with the Marshall Project, Cleveland where she will continue to do the incredible, investigative work she has always done, but PINJ misses her. Pittsburgh will miss her, too.
PINJ will not be undertaking new work. We believe it is important that the work done here continues to be available to readers and our website with all of our stories will remain live. We hope that this reporting can be relied on by other reporters and citizens as they pick up the torch.
Brittany Hailer investigated the carceral system and documented 13 deaths from March 2020 to March, 2022 inside the Allegheny County Jail. She worked with Josh Vaughn to track jail deaths across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, teamed up with Spotlight PA to take a deep dive into incompetency proceedings in the criminal justice system, worked with the Pittsburgh Independent to investigate Shuman Detention Center and take a hard look at juvenile incarceration here in Allegheny County.
Co-founder Jody DiPerna continued our mission to uplift the voices of regional writers — writers who reflect and interpret the lived experience of Pittsburghers, Rust Belters and Northern Appalachians. It was central to our mission to highlight the ways that the arts are essential to the Pittsburgh ecosystem. We believe that writing can connect people and that literary freedom and artistic expression are fundamental to a healthy community.
We have also taken historical dives into past events that help us better see our place today, including a timeline of police violence against Black Pittsburgh dating back to the 1860s and a thorough investigation into the execution of a Pittsburgh man who was likely innocent.
Other contributors have helped us to understand this place. We profiled Marion Damick, an activist who is anything but ordinary; highlighted the care provided to veterans and soldiers by Operation Troop Appreciation; and spotlighted a local photographer turned filmmaker.
We worked to provide a platform for the voices of writers who are not professional writers but have essential stories to tell. We are especially proud to have published writing from incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals.
To build community and provide venues for human connection, we staged tremendously successful events for film showings and book launches. We built working relationships with other news outlets such as Belt, Pittsburgh Independent, Penn Live, Spotlight PA, Pittsburgh Union Progress, and Penn-Capital Star. Though we are closing, the independent journalists at these platforms will continue to the hard work towards fair and enterprising journalism in Pittsburgh and beyond.
PINJ has been made possible by funding from The Grable Foundation, The Google News Equity Fund, The Pittsburgh Media Partnership, The Pulitzer Center, and by donations from our readers. When we look back at what has been made possible as a result of this generosity, we are humbled. Pittsburgh wants and needs good, thorough, and independent news built on collaboration, listening and proper, old-fashioned digging.
It has been quite a run for us. We have, at times, been overwhelmed by community support. It was sometimes rocky and sometimes joyous. It has been some of the most rewarding, meaningful work that we have done in our careers.
Thank you, Pittsburgh.