Ahead of the Asian American Journalists Association’s annual convention in Seattle, NEWSWELL spoke to Kristen Go, the editor in chief at CalMatters.
Go sat on a panel that discussed how to cover politics under the Trump administration, and we asked her how CalMatters’s leaders decide which stories to pursue and how they view their partnerships with local news outlets. She also explained why they’re not beholden to analytics alone.
CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that focuses on government accountability. NEWSWELL collaborates with CalMatters, and we have partnered on reporting projects, joint events and coordinated fundraising efforts.
How do you decide when a national story warrants localized coverage — and when to let it go?
Go: With so many decisions and changes happening at the national level — and at such a quick pace, it’s imperative to think about how to use our reporting resources wisely.
During the first Trump administration, we built a tracker of all the times the state sued the administration. We created a tracker for the second Trump administration so not everything on the tracker merits a story.
We also won’t chase national stories if we can’t provide a perspective about how something is impacting California, and specifically state agencies and policies. When the National Institutes of Health cut DEI grants nationwide, we wrote about how that would impact a $36 million grant to study dementia at the University of California Davis. A day after our story appeared, the grant was restored.
CalMatters partners with local newsrooms across the state. What makes a successful editorial partnership — and how do you ensure it’s mutually beneficial?
Go: There are different levels of partnership to help better inform Californians. At the most basic level, we try to help local newsrooms cover their communities by providing our coverage of the state for them to use — that frees up reporters in those markets to go after what’s happening in their backyard.
We also launched Digital Democracy, which allows anyone the ability to look up their local legislators, how they voted and review lobbying information. For local news organizations, there are Digital Democracy tipsheets that they can receive based on the interests of their community — say their local delegation, or issues about water. Those AI-generated tipsheets provide story ideas that reporters need to check out — but it brings the Capitol to them. So far, we’ve trained more than 100 journalists statewide.
One of the most rewarding partnerships we do with local news organizations is hosting in-person events around voting. We provide information about statewide issues, and local news organizations provide expert information on what’s on the ballot in their ZIP codes. Last year, we cohosted more than 40 events across the state. Voters who attended said they waited to fill out their ballots until they spent an evening with us.
How much of your editorial strategy is shaped by analytics vs. instinct?
Go: Our biggest measure of success isn’t driven by web analytics. We use web analytics to understand the kinds of stories people are reading.
But we also serve partners by providing our stories for free to California publications and to all of the NPR affiliates in the state. So we monitor which stories are republished by others too.
What we are keenly focused on is the impact from our reporting. We never set out to write a story with an intended impact in mind. When we think about telling stories, the questions we ask are: What’s the purpose of the story — is it to inform, provide analysis or accountability? The latter typically leads to impact.
In fact, we’re so focused on impact that we’re perhaps the only newsroom to have a Chief Impact Officer who helps us think about the best way to reach an audience and tracks whether it leads to new legislation, a state agency taking action or an investigation or lawsuit.
Learn more about CalMatters: Go’s approach underscores the importance of thoughtful, collaborative journalism in a fast-moving media landscape. CalMatters’ model offers a roadmap for how statewide and local newsrooms can work together to inform and empower communities.
This update originally appeared in our July 31, 2025, newsletter, which came from Christina Leonard, NEWSWELL director of operations and transformation. This version has been lightly edited for clarity.