The American folks personal 640 million acres of public land, held by the federal authorities and administered primarily by simply 5 businesses, the Bureau of Land Administration, Nationwide Park Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service. This land includes a whopping 28 p.c of America’s 2.27 billion acres. US public lands generate trillions of {dollars} and are the flashpoint for a number of the biggest political wrestling matches within the nation’s historical past. And but, no main media outlet has a devoted public lands desk to report on these important holdings. Till now.
Final week, former Exterior journal editor in chief Chris Keyes introduced the launch of RE:PUBLIC, a nonprofit information group created to cowl the problems surrounding public lands. With the Trump administration gutting businesses such because the Park Service and Forest Service, and with congressional efforts to unload thousands and thousands of acres of land to non-public entities, this seems like an vital transfer at a essential time.
Keyes’s imaginative and prescient is formidable. His deliberate finances for the primary 12 months is $500,000, with which he plans to rent an editorial director and a Washington, D.C.-based reporter, to launch a podcast and social channels, and to roll out a dozen investigative options. The build-out can even embody a knowledge staff, regional reporters, and an annual printed publication.
I caught up with Keyes to study extra. — Stephen Casimiro
Congratulations are so as.
Thanks. Yeah, I don’t know if it’s congratulations fairly but, however at the least I bought it out into the world.
Nicely, that’s type of the massive deal. You then’re dedicated. I keep in mind once I went to Out of doors Retailer the primary day and informed folks I used to be going to do AJ in print. On the finish of the day, I believed, “Oh, my god, what did I simply do?”
That’s precisely what I used to be saying to my spouse yesterday, as a result of I hold saying, if this doesn’t work out, you realize, I can do this, however now that I’ve began elevating cash, individuals are truly giving me {dollars}, I can’t imagine it. I’m caught now.
Yeah, you’re fairly properly in it. So, inform me what RE:PUBLIC is.
RE:PUBLIC is an unbiased, nonprofit newsroom devoted to completely masking public lands points. That’s our sole focus. We received’t be writing about the rest.
Why do you suppose it’s vital and why now?
Nicely, we now have 630 million acres of public lands which have been such a wealthy a part of our historical past and are hopefully going to be a part of our future. There are all types of administration implications that have to be mentioned and debated going ahead. Proper now could be a essential time as a result of the threats are unprecedented, however even in an administration the place the conservation motion isn’t taking part in as a lot protection, there are many different points to debate relating to these lands. And then you definately mix that with the truth that we’ve seen huge contraction throughout media within the final 20 years.
One of many statistics I cite is there’s 75 p.c fewer journalists working in America right this moment than there have been 20 years in the past. And so the media is overwhelmed, and particularly proper now, the problems happening with public lands are just like the 18th most vital matter for the nationwide media to cowl. They’re simply overwhelmed by all the things that’s on the market. So, my principle is we simply want extra journalists masking this area particularly.
It’s actually vital to me. It’s actually vital to the out of doors business that I’ve been a part of for 25 years. And whereas there are positively pockets of nice protection of this, you realize, Excessive Nation Information does nice work, there’s a Substack known as Public Area. They’re doing glorious work, however I might argue with anyone till I’m blue within the face that we don’t have sufficient journalists masking this vital matter, and in order that’s what we’re attempting to face up.
Do any of the foremost retailers have a public lands desk and even devoted reporter?
Not that I’m conscious of, and I did quite a lot of analysis once I was going into this. What’s encouraging is the foremost retailers all have a local weather desk, and I feel the US media is very well stocked now with these retailers and journalists masking local weather change—correctly. That’s the largest subject of our time, in my view.
However there isn’t any devoted public land desk that I’m conscious of. I feel Excessive Nation Information is contemplating standing one up themselves, however I’m not conscious of any others, and that’s why I noticed an ideal area of interest right here.
How lengthy have you ever been engaged on the thought? The place did it come from?
Nicely, once I left Exterior [in February 2025], I took a month to decompress as a result of there had been quite a lot of years of grinding. And the query I used to be actually asking myself was, is there nonetheless a spot for me in media and journalism? I really feel prefer it’s been 20 years with the universe telling me that this isn’t a cushty or safe job alternative.
And I’ve been ignoring it for a very long time, in order that was the very first thing for me. After which I had labored at Texas Month-to-month below a man named Evan Smith, who’s type of my mentor. He based the Texas Tribune, which is a nonprofit mannequin, and so I’d at all times been curious in regards to the mannequin, and I feel round March, this concept began gestating of, you realize, perhaps I might begin a nonprofit and get out of the business media curler coaster.
And I began doing analysis and bought an increasing number of fascinated by the area and the mannequin and noticed that there have been fairly a couple of entities which are nationwide in scope, however simply single-topic oriented. And that’s when it hit me that public lands had been a problem that I cared deeply about. And I additionally know from my a few years at Exterior that a few of our protection of public lands points, particularly through the first Trump administration, had been extremely in style tales. And so I do know there’s an viewers for it.
So when this began, actually April 1st, I mentioned, “I’m gonna give myself the month of April to give you a marketing strategy.” And if by the tip of April, I really feel like there’s one thing there, I’m gonna go for it. And in order that’s the way it occurred. That’s actually accelerated.
I understand how you spent your summer season.
Typically I’ve amazed myself at what I’ve achieved at this level. However yeah, I positively want to lift some more cash so I can get some extra assist.
Inform me about that. It’s a nonprofit. Nonprofits spend a lot vitality simply fundraising. The place do you anticipate the cash to come back from? What are the alternatives for funding nonprofit newsrooms?
In order a nonprofit—and simply to again up and to not get an excessive amount of within the weeds—once you’re a nonprofit, you file for nonprofit standing on the federal degree, for 501(c)(3) standing. And I used to be informed very early on that I can anticipate that to take at the least a 12 months and perhaps extra below this administration.
So the workaround for that’s to get a fiscal sponsor. And a fiscal sponsor is an present 501(c)(3) that may take tax-deductible {dollars} and that’s type of a pass-through to your group. So I’m fiscally sponsored by an entity known as the Institute for Nonprofit Information, and so they have 500 member organizations now, so it provides you a way of how a lot the area is exploding. A part of the foundations of the fiscal sponsorship and being a member of INN is that you just disclose the place you’re getting your cash.
Anyone that donates greater than $5,000, you disclose in your web site. So we will probably be doing that. However to reply your query about the place the cash’s coming from, for the primary 12 months, I’m actually targeted on particular person donors and foundations. And admittedly, the person donors are simpler as a result of I can go to lunch with any person who’s captivated with this undertaking and is eager about supporting me and so they can write a test the subsequent day. Foundations transfer much more slowly, though they’re able to offering much more funding. So I’m now making connections and constructing relationships on the basis degree, and that’s the place I anticipate my sustaining cash to come back from.
Screengrab from RE:PUBLIC’s web site house web page.
Do you have got any expectations that manufacturers within the out of doors business will contribute?
I do. I’ve made a acutely aware option to get onto a stable basis earlier than I am going to manufacturers, as a result of even with model help within the nonprofit base, there’s a transactional high quality to it. And having been in business media for therefore lengthy, I wish to be sure that I’m on agency footing earlier than I am going after these {dollars} in order that we stay as unbiased a information group as potential.
The place we’re headed is that I received’t be the editor in chief of this group. I will probably be hiring my counterpart, and I’ll be constructing the enterprise. And that’s vital to me as a result of a lot of my job will probably be elevating cash. Particularly once you get to the household foundations or the bigger foundations, all of them have a pet trigger, and a few of them may say, “Chris, how are you going to cowl this, you realize, subject X?” And I would like to have the ability to say, “Nicely, that’s not finally my resolution. That’s the editorial staff facet.”
So it’s a bit of bit like a publisher-editor relationship. And in order that’s how I wish to set it up for the long run, as a result of I feel that’s actually vital for our independence. It’s additionally going to make these conversations a bit of simpler.
How do Individuals really feel about public lands?
There’s fairly a couple of surveys achieved yearly that ballot each nationally and Western voters. And what you see is a brilliant majority of voters and a bipartisan coalition that basically imagine public land ought to keep in public arms and that there shouldn’t be any downsizing of, say, the monuments that we at the moment have.
So there’s a broad help for conservation. Once we cowl public lands, we wish to do it from a bipartisan perspective, as a result of we predict this can be a uncommon alternative to talk to each side of the aisle on a problem folks care about. However we additionally include two priors.
One is that we imagine that local weather change is actual and that it’s human-caused. And so we’re not gonna step again in our tales and say, on the one hand, some folks imagine local weather change is human-caused and others don’t. We take into account {that a} settled matter. After which the opposite could be that the recreation business and recreation concerns, together with conservation, haven’t had an equal seat on the desk when making administration selections.
And after we discuss this bipartisan coalition, I don’t suppose it’s tremendous sturdy but. It’s a really unfastened coalition. However that’s been one of many points for a lot of, many many years—that the out of doors business is a big, $1.2 trillion business, however it’s fragmented into tons and tons of consumer teams that don’t at all times essentially converse with one voice.
And that’s what I feel is gonna be essential going ahead.
Apart from reporting in a nonpartisan approach on the problems, do you see an activist position for RE:PUBLIC? Do you see an opinion-oriented, position-oriented position? Or do you are feeling you have got a dedication to keep up as a lot objectivity as you may on these points and canopy as many views as you may?
Nicely, we’re not an advocacy group, so we’re not on the market attempting to trumpet a single subject or shield a sure set of acres. I suppose the most effective instance I might give is, over the summer season, when Mike Lee, Senator Mike Lee from Utah, proposed his enormous sell-off plan, it galvanized this out of doors recreation group. One in every of his rationales was that this might be a repair for our housing disaster. And I feel it’s the advocacy group’s position to say, “We don’t care. We wish to shield each acre that we now have.” And that was type of the rallying cry, you realize, “We’ll shield each acre.”
I feel our position as a journalistic entity is extra to research that concept—might promoting some public lands be an answer for our housing disaster?—and to take a look at all sides of that after which come down on one or the opposite, however to not dismiss it out of hand, that’s not our position as journalists.
It does sound like a elementary precept is the protection of public lands. Is {that a} truthful assertion?
Sure. And protection can imply quite a lot of issues. We’re not essentially against any extractive industries. However I do suppose that we now have to steadiness use on these lands, and we include a perspective that these lands have to be preserved for the long run, and never for short-term acquire. And so that might be our perspective.
Do you are feeling that quite a lot of what you’re masking goes to be adverse, and do you ponder whether individuals are going to be conscious of it? Is that one thing you’ve considered in your protection?
I’d say I give it some thought daily, as a result of I do know from my time at Exterior that in case you don’t give you a compelling narrative in a narrative that’s on the heart of what you’re speaking about, there’s gonna be viewers fatigue. And so, what we at all times targeted on throughout my time at Exterior and what I actually imagine in is discovering these narratives. Even when it’s a adverse story, if there’s a compelling narrative on the heart, folks will learn it.
And I can’t fake to let you know what this group and what our editorial technique goes to appear to be 5 years from now, as a result of, like all enterprise startups, it’s going to evolve. However at our core, our first 12 months is to fund 10 to 12 feature-length investigative tales which are compelling and can have influence. And so, I’m not gonna let you know each a kind of tales is gonna be a house run, however my feeling is much less is extra on this area and to deal with massive, high-impact tales versus simply masking the day by day drip of unhealthy information popping out of this administration or the subsequent one.
I seen 27 p.c of your finances is put aside for story charges, however 4 p.c for images. It’s such a visible world. Do you see that ratio shifting?
Yeah, you’re in all probability taking a look at my blind spot, to be sincere with you. I’ve at all times had such an admiration for photographers, and I understand how a lot at Exterior they made our tales higher. And for some purpose, as a result of I come from the phrase facet, I at all times overemphasize the phrase. I used to be questioning about that flaw in my enterprise mannequin and I’ll cop to it and say I do know the way a lot photographers can elevate a narrative and I didn’t follow my weapons and be sure that we put aside more cash for that.
You’re based mostly within the West. There are far bigger parcels of public land within the West. Public lands within the East have a tendency to not get as a lot protection. What are your plans for reaching steadiness there—in case you really feel like it’s essential to obtain steadiness?
I’m wrestling with that proper now, to be fully sincere with you. One of many issues that’s turning into clear is that on the inspiration facet, there are tons of foundations which have a deal with the atmosphere or conservation, after which there are fairly a couple of foundations now that help journalism. However there are extra that help native journalism than nationwide single-topic journalism. So there are some funders who’re pushing me to be extra regional and perhaps outline our viewers because the West.
And in order that’s one thing that I’m wrestling with proper now. However a part of my principle is that almost all of our media is centered on the East Coast. And I feel that there’s a lack of expertise in regards to the significance of public lands to individuals who stay within the West and the way we work together and are available into contact with these lands, actually every day. And so these points are at all times prime of thoughts in a approach that they only aren’t on the East Coast. And so I feel it’s vital for this entity to be located within the West, even when there are, such as you say, there are quite a lot of public lands on the East, too. The majority of them, the place these actual points come to a head, are out west.
Thanks a lot for the time, Chris. Kudos. And better of luck.
Nicely, thanks. And I’ll put you down for $50,000.
