Outlet profile

Tennessee Lookout

U.S. center-left (nonprofit state-politics news)

Owned byPart of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. The Lookout is one of its state affiliates and says it keeps editorial independence.

FundingGrants and donations. States Newsroom says it takes no corporate donations and discloses donors who give $1,000 or more. Its funders include philanthropic foundations (for example the Local News Hub, which gave a $400,000 grant for women-in-politics reporting across five newsrooms including the Lookout) and individual readers. Content is free to read and is republished by other outlets.

On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Tennessee Lookout was announced in late April 2020 as a States Newsroom launch, with Holly McCall, a longtime Tennessee political columnist, as editor. States Newsroom became a 501(c)(3) in 2019 and has grown to outlets in about 39 states, with a presence in all 50 state capitals through partnerships. The Lookout covers the legislature, state agencies, courts, elections, health care, education and criminal justice, and it publishes opinion pieces alongside news reports. Its news stories are free to republish, so they appear in other Tennessee papers. States Newsroom's early funding and network ties have drawn criticism from conservatives, who say it is backed by liberal-leaning philanthropy. The organization says it has editorial firewalls between donors and newsrooms and publishes its donor list. The Lookout's reporting often centers on accountability for the Republican supermajority in Nashville and on the effects of state and federal policy on residents, such as Medicaid, immigration enforcement and voting. Its perspective is that of a progressive-leaning, accountability-focused outlet, though its straight news coverage relies on documents, officials and on-the-record sources.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-10-25; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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