Story by Brian Rosenzweig

Photography by Claire Jessen

Graphics by Bonnie Zhang

Kyle Villemain has always believed that North Carolina is a special place.

Enter his office in downtown Durham, and the first thing you’ll see is a map of the state, divided by county. Point to any of those counties on the map — Wake, Robeson, New Hanover — and Villemain will tell you stories.

“Our state’s a cool canvas,” Villemain said. “It’s big enough that there are lots of interesting stories, and small enough that you still care about something happening in North Carolina.”

But in the summer of 2020 — the same year North Carolina rose as the 9th most populous state in the United States, growing by nearly a million people since the 2010 census — Villemain had a feeling that many of the state’s stories weren’t being told.

At the time, Villemain was working as a speechwriter for various leaders within the UNC system. Yet in the midst of a highly contested election year, further exacerbated by the pandemic, he grew unnerved at the lack of information and oversight North Carolinians had over major decisions.

“There’s a lot going on behind the scenes that’s really interesting, and not always good. The most intense coverage we got was after things blew up,” Villemain said. “Too many decisions in North Carolina are made by very, very, very small circles, and I’m not a huge fan of that.”

As the year went on, Villemain started kicking around an idea: a digital publication that would tell stories of “power and place” in North Carolina that came from North Carolina. A publication that encouraged readers to go deeper: longform stories, monthlong investigations and comprehensive reporting from all sides of an issue. A publication not meant to supplement any one newsroom across the state, but instead be an asset to all of them.

In February 2021, that publication began as the Assembly.

Establishing a presence

Look at the Assembly’s Durham office today, and you might assume the publication hasn’t made much headway since its founding. Nestled in an exposed-brick startup hub, the office is roughly the size of a large bedroom, adorned with a few desks, a glass divider and some high-quality prints from Assembly photographers.

It’s an appearance that belies its more than 21,000 email subscribers, and star-studded masthead of staff and contributors hailing from across the country, from the Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times.

In the two years since its founding, the Assembly has grown into being a force to be reckoned with in North Carolina.

Villemain doesn’t shy away from describing the Assembly’s early days as “scrappy.” Before he could even launch the publication, Villemain had to garner support — and funding — to get it off the ground. That didn’t prove easy.

“What I found out quickly was that no one wanted to fund an idea, but they were open to funding a thing that was real,” Villemain said. “So, maybe foolishly, maybe smartly, I said OK, let’s just start publishing pieces.”

It was a gamble worth taking. After a few weeks of publishing stories from various freelancers in February 2021, Villemain said the Assembly had garnered $50,000 in support.

A few months in, the Assembly added its first employee to payroll: John Drescher, who joined as contributing editor following previous stints at the News & Observer and Washington Post.

Drescher proved a turning point for the publication. In May 2021, he reported a piece uncovering the connection between UNC-Chapel Hill megadonor Walter Hussman Jr. and the earlier decision of the university’s Board of Trustees to delay a vote on granting tenure to journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones — a decision that illuminated issues of institutional racism in higher academia, challenged notions of objectivity in journalism, and cast UNC-CH under national scrutiny.

“It blew up,” Villemain said. “We were on everything from Fox News to the New York Times. It was a big national story.”

It was also, fittingly, a piece that did just what the Assembly had set out to do; informing the conversation in North Carolina politics as they were happening. The Assembly’s coverage of Hussman spurred a formal denouncement of the megadonor by several members of UNC-CH’s journalism school faculty, and garnered large-scale protest that arguably resulted in the Board of Governors offering Hannah-Jones tenure.

The Assembly had established itself as a substantive presence in the North Carolina news landscape. It then had to prove it wasn’t a flash in the pan.

‘Connect the dots’: filling coverage gaps

Villemain knew that started with bulking up the Assembly’s staff. In early 2022, Kate Sheppard, former senior national editor of HuffPost, joined as the Assembly’s managing editor, alongside Paige Ladisic, who is revenue and growth director.

Sheppard originally hails from New Jersey and primarily had experience working in national news. But in the half-decade she had spent living in North Carolina as an associate professor at UNC’s journalism school, she’d come to recognize coverage gaps in the state.

“There’s only so much appetite for North Carolina stories in the national media,” Sheppard said. “There were a lot of things where there was a momentary headline, and I was like, ‘What happened with that?’ Just stories where you go back and connect the dots.”

In the past year, stories that “connect the dots” have increasingly become what the Assembly is known for.

Ask Villemain and Sheppard some of their proudest stories published from the past year — an analysis of the decades-long decline of Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies, a 5,000+ word story on the commercialization of  High Point University, and an insider profile on now-senator Ted Budd — and you’ll notice a sincere commitment to longform, well-researched and uniquely North Carolinian stories.

Chris Cooper, a professor of political science and public affairs at Western Carolina University who’s also contributed opinion pieces to the Assembly, said that journalism dedicated to statewide issues is an essential presence in North Carolina.

“Fights over healthcare, gerrymandering, abortion, gun access — those are state level issues at this point,” Cooper said. “And here’s an outlet that is focused on power in place in North Carolina, and it’s improved the news ecosystem.”

In addition to its statewide focus, Cooper also said the Assembly’s approach of longform and storytelling-style writing helps to highlight stories in the state that don’t often get attention.

“It is explicitly statewide. And if you’re in Raleigh or Chapel Hill, that’s not a meaningful delineation, but if you live in Murphy, it means something to have a statewide magazine,” Cooper said. “It exposes me to corners of the state that don’t always get the most attention.”

Continuing to grow

Amid a landscape of steadily declining newsrooms state and nationwide, the Assembly stands as a rare instance of a new — and growing — publication.

That means news watchers in the state are especially interested in how it does.

Shannan Bowen is the executive director of NC Local News Workshop, an initiative housed at Elon University that advises and provides resources to North Carolina newsrooms in an effort to strengthen the local news ecosystem.

Since stepping into the role in the summer 2021, Bowen has been working as an advisor to editors at the Assembly, helping to direct their attention toward identified coverage gaps in the state, and work toward promoting long-term sustainability for the publication.

In its first two years, Bowen said the Assembly has already established itself as a reputable, prominent news presence in the state. But as it moves forward, she said, the publication needs to continue growing in readership.

“Now they’re a couple years in, investors or others are going to want to start seeing that they’re growing in digital revenue,” Bowen said. “One thing that’s challenging for digital publications like magazines, is that — especially if there’s a low frequency of content — you have to get something for people to stay hooked.”

With two subscription tiers at $4 and $15 a month — the latter tier promising “exclusive content” — the Assembly stands as a relatively affordable news subscription. But as a biweekly publication that doesn’t supplement a local news outlet, Bowen said the Assembly may have to do more to prove its value to prospective subscribers.

For its first year, the Assembly generally produced one long-form article a week. Since Sheppard joined on, they’ve ramped up to publishing twice a week, alongside a weekly newsletter with short summaries of weekly stories. 

Going forward, Sheppard said she hopes not only to publish more frequently (her goal is five days a week), but also diversify the forms and topics of their content.

“We’re just thinking about, ‘How do we add more types of content and delivery mechanisms for readers? How do we be more nimble?’” Sheppard said. “We’ve launched some different newsletters; we have a book newsletter, now we’re going to start a food newsletter in a few weeks. We’re just kind of capitalizing on our culture coverage.”

Villemain said the Assembly’s readership and subscriber base has been growing steadily every month, but that an ambitious subscriber base of 45,000 email subscribers

— more than double their current 21,000 — is needed by the end of the year to meet their desired goal for the year.

It’s an ambitious goal, but Villemain feels confident.

“The most important thing is, are you bringing in more revenue this month than you were in the last one?” Villemain said. “And if you’re going on a good trajectory, then you’re in a good place.”

Villemain acknowledged that the Assembly’s growth model, in many ways, is “throwing pasta at the wall and seeing what sticks.” 

In the next few months, they plan to pilot a print magazine for subscribers (aimed at starting coffee table conversations), open new bureaus with reporters in places like Wilmington and Greensboro, and venture into dedicated beats about culture, arts, music and food. If any of those forays don’t work, Villemain said, they’ll scrap them and try something new.

“Our big thing is, ‘How do you try new things and fail fast?’” Villemain said. “If it doesn’t work, you pivot, and you can still protect your team.”

Of the various approaches to growth, perhaps the most significant is the Assembly’s partnerships with other newsrooms. During its first two years, the Assembly has partnered and published pieces with the southeastern North Carolina-based Border Belt Independent, Smoky Mountain News based out of Waynesville and the Cape Fear NPR station WHQR.

Sheppard said these partnerships help the Assembly ensure that their coverage across the state is locally informed and accurate.

“We partner with them to do things that are bigger and more ambitious, or that highlight and elevate those things to the state level,” Sheppard said.

Cooper said this focus on partnership is one of the reasons why he believes the Assembly has been successful in its first two years, allowing it to emerge as a collaborative presence in the state, rather than one that could detract from other newsrooms.

“I think in less skilled hands, they could have created a really cutthroat atmosphere in North Carolina journalism circles, but they’re so good about partnering,” Cooper said. “I think rather than taking away from other outlets in the state, I think it has contributed to them, and it’s improved the news ecosystem.”

Bowen said she also believes those partnerships have a twofold benefit for the Assembly, in both teaching its writers and editors more about regions across the state, and growing the Assembly’s readership and reputation.

“They’re not replacing what a daily news organization might do, but they’re telling you, ‘Here’s the take on why something is happening, and what is happening,’” Bowen said. “That’s helping to expand reach of that publication and also helping

them to learn about the issues in the area where they might want to offer some reporting assistance.”

Unlike many news startups from the past decade, the Assembly is not a nonprofit. However, Villemain notes, being for-profit doesn’t mean the Assembly is profitable.

“We’re losing more money than we’re spending every month, intentionally,” Villemain said. “It was very tight month-to-month for a very long time, and it still is tight.”

That’s because Villemain said he’s prioritized high pay for its staff and freelancers — its “Pitch” page notes a base rate of $1,000 per story — above seeing immediate profit — an approach he believes is critical to growing the Assembly as a reputable outlet.

“We’ve chosen to be really ambitious and hire lots of great people, and that takes money,” Villemain said. “So it will be a while until we’re making more money than we’re spending, and frankly, what I’ve told our team is that when that happens, we’ll hire some more people.”

This month, the Assembly will reach 10 full-time staff members, including four new reporters. They’re pushing forward with moves to establish bureaus across the state and begin offering events to subscribers. They’re growing steadily.

As they have, they’ve become increasingly confident that the Assembly is a presence that’s needed in the state.

“I’ve sold the most subscriptions by just wearing my Assembly hoodie,” Sheppard said.

For Villemain, the growth just confirms what he’s always known about North Carolina: that it’s a special place, and that its people want to learn more about its stories. Villemain touts the fact that the Assembly now has readers in all 100 of North Carolina’s counties; he wants all of them to feel represented on the website’s stories.

“We’re always trying to fill a gap that’s not fully filled,” Villemain said. “That means doing more things about people’s backyards, about where people work, diving into industries, diving into cities, but still kind of keeping the, ‘OK, let’s do a different type of journalism.’”