NOTUS (website)

Robert Allbritton, a founder of Politico, established the Allbritton Journalism Institute in 2023 with a personal grant of $20 million. According to Allbritton, he intended to create an outlet to train aspiring public affairs journalists, filling a gap formerly occupied by daily newspapers.^[1]

In March 2026, Semafor reported that Allbritton had plans to rebrand NOTUS and double its staff, in response to large-scale layoffs at the Washington Post. He and his leadership team intended to build the "next great Washington newspaper."^[2][3]

NOTUS operates as a website at notus.org and publishes a daily newsletter. It also distributes its content to local nonprofit news organizations such as Oklahoma Watch, the Santa Barbara News-Press, and others. In addition to its endowment from Allbritton, NOTUS has received funding from the Henry L. Kimelman Family Foundation, the Sandpiper Fund, the Google News Initiative,^[4] an array of corporate advertisers, and from syndication fees paid by its local news partners.^[5]

NOTUS covers the politics of the United States. It is staffed by a combination of experienced professional journalists and term-limited staff — "fellows" — of which ten are annually selected from recent university graduates and early-career journalists for a paid work experience reporting for NOTUS for 24-months, which is preceded by a month-long immersion course in Washington, D.C. and augmented by guest courses taught by veteran reporters. Some of the senior editors have included Richard Just, Matt Fuller, Kate Nocera, and Matt Berman.^[1][6][7]

Notable journalists in their reporting staff include Jasmine Wright, Haley Byrd Wilt, Oriana González, Evan McMorris-Santoro, and Maggie Severns.^[8][9]

NOTUS named long time Bloomberg executive Arielle Elliott its first CEO in March 2025.^[10]

• Institute for Nonprofit News