The Coconut Grove Spotlight is forging a new collaborative partnership with The Florida Trib to bring additional investigative journalism to Miami City Hall.
When we launched the Coconut Grove Spotlight in early 2024, our mission was straightforward: Give our community the kind of independent, in-depth local journalism that was becoming increasingly difficult to find elsewhere.
Our focus was Coconut Grove — its neighborhoods, its people, and the decisions that were shaping its future.
It didn’t take long to recognize that many of those decisions were being forged at Miami City Hall and beyond. That’s why government accountability has become such an important part of our reporting.
Today, we’re pleased to share some news that will help us do more of that work.
The Spotlight is joining forces with The Florida Trib, a statewide investigative newsroom, to launch the Miami Accountability Collaborative, a new partnership dedicated to sustained watchdog reporting at Miami City Hall.
The idea is simple: By combining our resources and expertise, we can pursue more ambitious investigations, dig deeper into complicated issues and bring our reporting to a wider audience.
The Florida Trib brings some formidable talent to the partnership, including Tess Riski, who covered Miami City Hall for the Miami Herald, and veteran investigative journalists Casey Frank and Carol Marbin Miller, whose work has helped expose wrongdoing and bring about important reforms.
Together, we’ll be able to keep a closer watch on City Hall, follow important developments that might otherwise go unreported and dig deeper into decisions that deserve greater public scrutiny.
We’ll share reporting, co-publish stories and work with other newsrooms to bring important findings to more readers across Miami and South Florida.
The timing couldn’t be more important.
As traditional news organizations have cut back their local reporting staffs, fewer journalists are left to keep watch over government. The Miami Herald recently eliminated its dedicated City Hall reporting position, leaving a significant gap in coverage of a government whose decisions affect nearly half a million residents.
Over the past two years, the Spotlight has investigated the city’s growing budget and personnel costs, the handling of public money intended for tree planting, controversial development decisions and unfulfilled promises in major waterfront projects. We’ve also challenged city restrictions on journalists’ access to government employees.
All of that work reflects a simple belief: Residents deserve to know how their government operates, how their tax dollars are spent and whether public officials are delivering on their promises.
By working together with the Florida Trib, we believe we can deliver the kind of accountability reporting that our community deserves – and needs.
The collaborative’s first year is supported by challenge matching grants from Press Forward South Florida, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Report for America and other donors.
For our readers, one thing won’t change: Our commitment to Coconut Grove.
We’ll continue covering the neighborhood’s development pressures, environmental challenges, community institutions and the people who make it distinctive. And we’ll continue asking difficult questions about the decisions made at City Hall.
Of course, none of this would be possible without you.
The Spotlight exists because readers and supporters believe that independent local journalism matters — and because so many of you have contributed your time, your ideas, your encouragement and your financial support to help us do this work.
We’re grateful for that trust, and we don’t take it for granted.
This new partnership is an opportunity to build on what we’ve started together. We hope you’ll continue to read our stories, share them with your neighbors, send us your tips and questions, and support the reporting that keeps our community informed.
There’s a lot more work to be done, and we’re excited about what comes next.
Thanks for being part of it.
David Villano and Don Finefrock are co-editors of the Coconut Grove Spotlight and members of the nonprofit news organization’s management team.
