Florida Politics

About Florida Politics

Suncoast Searchlight is a nonprofit, nonpartisan digital newsroom serving Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties on Florida's Gulf Coast. Launched in February 2025, the newsroom produces investigative and explanatory journalism focused on government accountability, education, growth and development, and housing, and it makes its work freely available on its website and for republication by other media outlets. In its first year of publication, the fledgling newsroom earned an extraordinary run of state, regional, and national journalism awards, establishing itself almost immediately as a force in Florida accountability reporting.

The newsroom was founded with a startup grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation and is led by executive editor-in-chief Emily Le Coz, a former USA TODAY investigative journalist who has lived in Sarasota since 2015. Its founding reporting staff brought a combined 40 years of experience in data, investigative, and local journalism, much of it from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, the region's legacy daily. The newsroom's collaborative model — co-producing investigations with established outlets and offering its stories free for republication — has made it a force multiplier for local accountability journalism across the Suncoast region.

Launch and Founding

Suncoast Searchlight launched in February 2025 as an independent, nonpartisan newsroom dedicated to serving the residents of Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties. Its stated mission is to shine a light on critical issues facing the Suncoast region through original accountability, explanatory, and investigative stories, all produced independently and in collaboration with media partners. From the start, the newsroom committed to fostering transparency and accountability, amplifying community voices, and giving residents the information they need to understand and make decisions about their community.

The launch was backed by a generous startup grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, a Sarasota-based philanthropy, reflecting a growing national pattern of foundation support for nonprofit local news. The newsroom's leadership framed the launch as a response to the hollowing out of local journalism: with legacy outlets shrinking, Suncoast Searchlight aimed to strengthen local journalism in every way possible — by producing original investigative work, collaborating with established newsrooms, and directly supporting local journalists.

Leadership and Staff

Emily Le Coz serves as executive editor-in-chief. A former investigative journalist for USA TODAY who has lived in Sarasota since 2015, Le Coz brought national-level investigative experience to the regional newsroom. She has described the newsroom's approach as producing original investigative work, collaborating with established newsrooms, and directly supporting local journalists so that the people of Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties have access to rigorous, fact-based reporting.

The founding reporting staff of four full-time reporters brought a combined 40 years of experience. Josh Salman, who most recently served as watchdog editor at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, covers accountability and investigations. Kara Newhouse, a former Washington, D.C.-based editor and podcast producer for KQED, brought public-media experience to the team. Alice Herman previously covered politics for The Guardian's U.S. operation from Madison, Wisconsin. Derek Gilliam, a Florida-based reporter who most recently covered real estate for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, covers development and housing. Keith Woods serves as board chair, and the newsroom later hired Samantha Ramlall as its first development director, marking its next phase of organizational growth.

Coverage Areas

Suncoast Searchlight focuses on government accountability, rapid development and growth, education, environmental pressures, and public safety. Its investigations have examined Sarasota County's troubled stormwater system, the politics reshaping New College of Florida, the explosion of community development districts financing new development, the proliferation of illegal gambling arcades, misconduct cases in Manatee County schools, and the jail-to-deportation pipeline in the region's criminal justice system.

The newsroom also produces explanatory journalism and "fact briefs" designed to give residents clear, verified information about their communities. In its first seven months of publishing, it produced 65 original stories and 40 fact briefs tackling issues of government accountability, rapid development, education, environmental pressures, and public safety. Its reporting on Tropical Storm Debby's exposure of failures in local infrastructure exemplified its approach: ambitious, data-driven, public-service journalism aimed at the region's most consequential problems.

Signature Investigations

The newsroom's "Power and Profit" series, an investigation into the explosion of community development districts in the Sarasota-Manatee region, became its signature early work. The series examined how the special-purpose districts used to finance infrastructure for new developments were proliferating and what that meant for taxpayers and residents. The investigation won the Institute for Nonprofit News' national Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism and was a finalist for the INNY Awards' Best Investigative Journalism honor, and it earned a Silver Award for Best Investigative Report from the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Other notable investigations included "Stripmall Casinos," an examination of the proliferation of illegal gambling arcades produced with the Bradenton Herald; a joint investigation with the Bradenton Herald into a series of misconduct cases at Manatee County schools; a Sarasota County stormwater investigation produced with the Florida Trident; and reporting with the Bradenton Herald on a Manatee County sheriff's bar fight. The newsroom's investigation of the jail-to-deportation pipeline, reported by Alice Herman and Kara Newhouse, won first place in the Society of Professional Journalists' Sunshine State Awards for non-deadline news reporting.

Collaborative Model

Collaboration is central to how Suncoast Searchlight works. The newsroom partners with local print, digital, and broadcast newsrooms to co-produce impactful stories using shared resources, and it supports those local newsrooms by offering assistance with public records requests, data work, editing, and training. Its stories are offered at no cost to other news organizations for republication, and in its first seven months its reporting was republished more than 600 times across local, regional, and state media in print, online, radio, and television formats.

Partner outlets have included the Bradenton Herald, the Florida Trident, and WUSF, the region's public media station. The newsroom's leadership has described collaboration as a response to the economics of modern local journalism: even as news organizations remain competitive, there is a growing recognition that, with shrinking resources, communities are better served when newsrooms work together and maximize what they are able to produce. Suncoast Searchlight's reporting was also cited, aggregated, or used as a springboard for at least 150 other stories produced by media outlets across Florida in its first months.

Awards and Recognition

Suncoast Searchlight's first year brought a remarkable haul of honors. The Society of Professional Journalists' Florida Pro Chapter named the newsroom a finalist for nine Sunshine State Awards — one of Florida's most prestigious journalism competitions — and the newsroom went on to win several, including first-place honors for its Tropical Storm Debby coverage, the jail-to-deportation pipeline reporting, Alice Herman's New College beat reporting, and staff reporting on DeSoto County. The Sunshine State Awards carry no weight classes based on publication size, meaning the fledgling nonprofit competed directly against some of the largest newspapers in the state.

Earlier in the year, the newsroom won the Institute for Nonprofit News' national Insight Award for Explanatory Journalism for "Power and Profit," was named a finalist for Best Investigative Journalism in the INNY Awards for "Stripmall Casinos," and earned a Silver Award for Best Investigative Report from the National Association of Real Estate Editors. It also received multiple honors from the Florida Press Club, the Florida Society of News Editors, and the national Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. The Sunshine State Awards capped what the newsroom's leaders called a year of state, regional, and national recognition for ambitious, public-service journalism.

Community Engagement

Engaging directly with the community is at the heart of the newsroom's mission. Suncoast Searchlight seeks public input and facilitates civic discussions through events and outreach, hosts free monthly journalism trainings for local reporters, and publishes a weekly newsletter curating key coverage from other outlets for readers. The trainings and the newsletter reflect the newsroom's dual identity as both a watchdog and a convener: it produces original investigations while also strengthening the broader news ecosystem across the region.

The newsroom's community-facing work is designed to make accountability journalism accessible and participatory. By soliciting story ideas from residents and by explaining its reporting processes, Suncoast Searchlight has sought to build trust with a public that is often skeptical of media — a particular challenge for a new institution in a region with deep political divisions.

Nonprofit Structure and Funding

Suncoast Searchlight is a nonprofit newsroom funded by philanthropy, including its founding grant from the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, and by reader donations. Its contact address is listed as a post office box in Sarasota, and its leadership has emphasized that the newsroom rests on the belief that strong communities require strong journalism.

The hiring of a dedicated development director within the newsroom's first year signaled its intention to build a sustainable fundraising operation beyond its startup grant. Like other nonprofit newsrooms of its generation, Suncoast Searchlight must convert early philanthropic enthusiasm into durable, diversified revenue — a challenge that has ended more than one promising local-news startup.

Place in the Regional Media Landscape

Suncoast Searchlight arrived in a region where the legacy daily, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, had been hollowed out by corporate ownership changes, and where fast-growing communities in Manatee and DeSoto counties were straining under development pressures with diminished journalistic scrutiny. The newsroom's focus on growth, development finance, and government accountability speaks directly to the Suncoast's most urgent civic questions.

Rather than competing head-to-head with the remaining legacy outlets, Suncoast Searchlight has positioned itself as a collaborator and a capacity-builder, co-publishing with the Bradenton Herald and the Florida Trident and training the region's reporters. In a media environment where many communities face news deserts, the newsroom has positioned itself as both a watchdog and a convener — a model that, if it proves sustainable, could offer a template for nonprofit local news in other fast-growing regions.

Access and Audience

Suncoast Searchlight publishes at suncoastsearchlight.org, where all of its stories are freely available, and it distributes its work through a weekly email newsletter. Its stories are also available for republication by other news organizations at no cost, and its reporting regularly appears in partner outlets across the region and the state.

The newsroom's audience includes residents of Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto counties seeking in-depth accountability reporting, as well as journalists, policymakers, and civic leaders who follow its investigations. Its rapid accumulation of awards and its high republication rate suggest that its work is reaching well beyond its own website, fulfilling its founders' ambition to be a force multiplier for local journalism on Florida's Gulf Coast.