Biologists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Idaho office survey for greater sage-grouse in Owyhee County, Idaho, in 2024. HCN is offering free access to our reporting to all federal workers. Credit: Lena Chang / USFWS

This year marks the culmination of an ambitious three-year plan created by High Country News board and staff to “future proof” HCN by developing the tools, skills and strategy that will enable us to thrive and grow in a rapidly changing West and amid an ever-evolving media landscape.

Already, we’ve done some exciting things. Our sophisticated new tools have enabled us to get our journalism into the hands of the people who need it, and our stories are having real, on-the-ground impact. You’ll read more about this in our Impact Report in the following pages, but here’s a few highlights from this year:

• Our reporting about how federal spending cuts will impact public media in rural and Indigenous communities made noticeable waves. We were cited several times in the amicus brief that NPR member stations and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press filed in the lawsuit brought by NPR (and Colorado stations) against the federal government over its unprecedented clawback of federal funding. The New York Times and other news outlets followed our lead.
• When we learned that the White House had ordered federal agencies to cancel news subscriptions amid a tsunami of firings and forced retirements, we decided to offer all federal employees, including those who have recently lost jobs, free access to our reporting. More than 700 people have signed up so far, sparking what we hope will be new and lasting relationships with HCN.
• We hosted events around the West and online, connecting with readers over topics ranging from how young people are shaping the battle against climate change to the work of BIPOC and LGBTQ communities in the outdoor space and how the Rock Creek Band of the Yakama Nation is fighting to protect its sacred lands in Washington from energy development.

We do not do this work alone. Our reporters and editors regularly partner with other publications, an arrangement that enhances the quality of our journalism and empowers communities West-wide to tell their own stories. Some recent examples of our collaborative efforts include:

• HCN continues to be a sought-after partner for other news organizations. In 2025, we worked with Public Domain to bring readers an investigation into Utah’s PR campaign for seizing public lands, while our collaboration with Capital B News resulted in a story about how Black communities in Phoenix are being impacted by climate change, and our partnership with Type Investigations revealed how California’s new power outage program, designed to reduce wildfires, leaves customers experiencing thousands of outages a year.
• Our September 2025 issue, “Food and Power in the West,” was a collaboration between HCN and the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN). In this special issue, we worked to untangle the web of food production in the West, tracing it from the people who raise it to the ones who ship it, market it, sell it and profit from it.

We’ve won awards and received plenty of love notes (and some hate mail), but what we truly care about is having a positive and lasting impact on Western landscapes and communities. Our communities are at the heart of what we do, and they have sustained this organization for half a century.

I like to sum up HCN’s theory of change like this:

1. There is strength in community. HCN exists to foster a sense of community and belonging, and to share authentic insights into the region with people everywhere who care about the West.

2. Stories can spark change. Our in-depth, public-interest journalism is intended to inspire action and spark on-the-ground change.

3. Stories + community = change that can endure. We believe that this powerful combination of community bonds and shared stories has the power to create lasting solutions to the region’s most pressing challenges.

None of this work would be possible without you, of course. Take heart in reading the insightful and thought-provoking stories in this issue and reviewing our 2025 Impact Report, knowing that all of this was made possible thanks to your continued investment in High Country News. Thank you!

We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at editor@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.

This article appeared in the December 2025 print edition of the magazine with the headline “HCN’s journalism is having on-the-ground impact.”

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