The Trace

About The Trace

The Trace is an American nonprofit journalism outlet devoted to gun-related news in the United States. Established in 2015 with seed funding from Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun-violence-prevention organization founded by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, it describes itself as the only newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence. Based in New York City, The Trace combines daily news coverage with data journalism and long-form investigations, aiming to improve public understanding of gun violence, increase accountability, and identify solutions.

Founding: Bloomberg, Everytown, and the 2015 launch

The Trace was established in 2015 and went live on June 19 of that year — two days after nine people were gunned down at a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, a tragedy that underscored the urgency its founders felt. The site was seeded with funding from Everytown for Gun Safety, which Bloomberg had established as part of a major political and advocacy push for stricter gun laws, having already devoted tens of millions of dollars to the organization.

The concept was modeled on other single-issue nonprofit newsrooms that had demonstrated the model's viability — notably The Marshall Project, which covers criminal justice, and InsideClimate News, which covers climate change. The premise: when the general-interest press does not thoroughly cover a major social issue, a dedicated newsroom can fill the gap and feed better coverage to the rest of the country. John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown, said The Trace grew out of frustrations with the enormous media capacity of the National Rifle Association, which he believed needed to be countered with serious, research-based journalism.

Tapped to lead the journalism effort as founding editorial director was James Burnett, who had left The New Republic earlier that year. An editor's note on the new site said the hundreds of shooting deaths and injuries occurring daily across the country "are the context for the tragedies" like Charleston that "galvanize our national attention," and that the site would focus on the shortage of information on the subject at large.

The "only newsroom" dedicated to gun violence

The Trace's defining claim is its singularity of focus: it presents itself as the only newsroom in the country devoted exclusively to reporting on gun violence. That focus shapes everything about its journalism. Rather than covering shootings as isolated breaking-news events, The Trace covers the systems behind them — how guns are trafficked, how the firearms industry operates, how laws are written and enforced, and how communities experience and respond to gun violence.

This systems-level approach distinguishes The Trace from conventional crime reporting. Its stories examine topics such as the flow of illegal guns between states with different gun laws, the marketing practices of gun manufacturers, the politics of gun research funding, and the effectiveness — or ineffectiveness — of specific violence-intervention programs. The goal, as the organization states it, is not only to document the problem but to identify solutions.

Leadership

The Trace's editor-in-chief is Tali Woodward, who leads the newsroom's editorial operations. James Burnett serves as managing director, and Craig Hunter as executive editor. The organization's president is John Feinblatt, who simultaneously serves as president of Everytown for Gun Safety — a dual role that has been a focal point of criticism from the outlet's detractors. The Trace operates as Trace Media Inc., a registered nonprofit, and employed a staff of around 29 journalists as of 2026.

From its founding, The Trace's leadership has insisted on a firewall between the newsroom and its funders, arguing that editorial decisions are made independently of Everytown's advocacy agenda. The outlet states that it does not take a position on specific gun regulations or laws, but rather seeks to produce journalism that can inform the debate.

Coverage areas and reporting approach

The Trace's coverage falls into several broad areas. Its daily news operation tracks developments in gun policy, gun violence research, and the firearms industry. Its investigative team produces long-form projects — often in partnership with mainstream outlets — that can take months of reporting. Its data journalism operation maintains databases and trackers related to shootings, gun trafficking patterns, and the implementation of gun laws.

A signature element of The Trace's approach is its emphasis on the victims and communities affected by gun violence, particularly in cities where shootings are a daily reality but rarely national news. By treating urban gun violence with the sustained seriousness usually reserved for mass shootings, the outlet has sought to correct what it sees as a distortion in how the American press covers the issue.

Data journalism and investigations

Data has been central to The Trace's identity from the start. The outlet has built and maintained datasets on gun violence that are cited by other news organizations, researchers, and policymakers. Its data projects have examined subjects such as the sources of crime guns recovered by police, trends in gun thefts, and the geographic patterns of shootings within cities.

Its investigative work has included deep dives into the gun industry's business practices, the operations of gun dealers whose weapons disproportionately end up in crimes, and the political forces shaping gun legislation. These investigations are frequently produced in collaboration with larger news organizations, a strategy that amplifies their reach.

Partnerships with mainstream outlets

A key part of The Trace's strategy has been partnering with mainstream news organizations on investigative series. It has collaborated with USA Today on firearms investigations, with the Los Angeles Times, and with other national and regional outlets. These partnerships serve both parties: The Trace gains distribution for its reporting through publications with far larger audiences, while the partner outlets gain specialized expertise they could not easily develop in-house.

The partnership model has also been central to The Trace's influence. By embedding its reporting in the country's largest newspapers and broadcast outlets, the small nonprofit has shaped national coverage of gun violence well beyond what its own readership numbers would suggest.

Funding model

The Trace is a nonprofit organization funded primarily by philanthropic support. Its initial seed funding came from Everytown for Gun Safety, and it has since been supported by foundations and individual donors interested in gun-violence prevention and journalism. Like other nonprofit newsrooms, it discloses its major funders and maintains that its editorial operations are independent of them.

The funding model reflects the broader economics of single-issue nonprofit journalism: a subject with a committed philanthropic constituency can sustain a newsroom that the commercial market would not support on its own. The Trace's continued operation more than a decade after its founding suggests the model has proven durable for this subject — though it also means the outlet's existence depends on the continued engagement of its donor base.

Audience and digital platforms

The Trace publishes through its website, thetrace.org, and reaches readers through email newsletters, social media, and its partnerships with larger outlets. Its digital packages — combining text, photography, video, and interactive data visualizations — are designed to make complex subjects accessible to general readers. The outlet's slick presentation has been noted by both admirers and critics; its stories look and read like those of a major national publication, a deliberate choice to signal journalistic seriousness.

Beyond its direct audience, The Trace's journalism reaches millions more through republication and citation. Its data and investigations are routinely cited by national newspapers, television networks, and policymakers, giving the small newsroom an outsized role in the national conversation about guns.

Controversies and criticism

The Trace has been controversial since before it published its first story, and the criticism comes overwhelmingly from one direction: gun-rights advocates. The National Rifle Association described the outlet as a "propaganda outfit" and part of a "disinformation campaign," and pro-gun publications have repeatedly characterized The Trace as the propaganda arm of Bloomberg's gun-control empire rather than a legitimate news organization. Critics point to the seed funding from Everytown, the shared president in John Feinblatt, and Bloomberg's broader advocacy spending as evidence that the outlet cannot be editorially independent.

The Trace's response has been consistent: that it is a journalism organization with editorial independence, that its reporting is fact-based and subject to normal journalistic standards, and that its critics are attacking the funding rather than engaging with the reporting. The outlet notes that it does not advocate for specific legislation and that its investigations have been published by mainstream news organizations with their own editorial standards and fact-checking processes.

Media ethicists have debated the partnership model — whether mainstream outlets should collaborate with a newsroom funded by an advocacy organization, and what disclosures such collaborations require. USA Today and other partners have addressed this with editor's notes describing The Trace as "a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to improving public understanding of gun violence." The debate reflects broader questions about the nonprofit news ecosystem, in which many respected newsrooms are funded by philanthropies with views on the subjects they cover.

Outlook

More than a decade after its founding, The Trace has established itself as a durable institution in American journalism — the clearest proof that the single-issue nonprofit newsroom model can sustain itself over time. Its influence on the national gun debate, through both its own reporting and its partnerships, is difficult to dispute even among its critics.

Looking ahead, The Trace's trajectory will depend on the same factors that shape all nonprofit journalism: the durability of its funding, its ability to demonstrate impact, and the continued relevance of its subject. On the last point, there is little doubt. Gun violence remains one of the most urgent and contested issues in American public life, and The Trace's founding premise — that it deserves a newsroom of its own — has only been reinforced by the years since 2015.