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Non-profit

Deep South Today

Website:

deepsouthtoday.org
Location:

Ridgeland, MS
Tax ID:

47-2158741
Tax-Exempt Status:

501(c)(3)

Budget (2021):

Revenue: $5,184,768
Expenses: $2,205,634
Assets: $5,242,208
Type:

News Publishing Group
Formation:

2015
Chairman:

Andrew Lack

Contact InfluenceWatch with suggested edits or tips for additional profiles.

Deep South Today is a network of left-leaning news agencies operating primarily in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, with the main newsrooms covering the state of Mississippi and the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The network has received significant funding from the Ford Foundation, one of the largest and most influential left-of-center grantmaking organizations in the United States. 1 2

Publications

Deep South Today’s main news sites are Mississippi Today, which covers state and regional news, and Verite, which primarily covers the New Orleans, Louisiana area. 3

Mississippi Today was founded in 2016. Since then, it has received endorsements from organizations such as the Institute for Nonprofit News, which provides training and resources with a left-leaning slant to news outlets, as well as the Knight Media Fund, a project of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. 4

Mississippi Today adopts a left-of-center framing on controversial issues such as abortion and gender identity. The publication’s coverage of natal males attempting to participate in women’s sports has described policies to prevent this in the state as “restrictions on transgender Mississippians.” 5 The publication has also claimed that pro-life “fetal personhood” laws mark “a significant shift towards criminalizing mothers.” 6

Verite, based in New Orleans, Louisiana, was launched in 2022 and markets itself primarily to Black and other racial minority populations. Its mission statement claims that race-based disparities in wealth, crime, and other factors are the result of “systemic” social forces. 7 8 Verite frames pro-life legislation and Louisiana as a negative, claiming that the state is an “abortion desert” and that minority and low-income populations are “more vulnerable” as a result. 9 10

Controversies

In 2022, Deep South Today’s lead publication Mississippi Today published a multi-part report claiming that former governor Phil Bryant (R) had corruptly allocated $77 million in federal welfare funding to benefit his family and associates. The publication went on to receive a Pulitzer Prize for its reporting. 11 The story received significant attention in part because it involved money allegedly being shifted to former National Football League star Brett Favre. In May 2023, Mississippi Today chief executive officer Mary Margaret White was forced to apologize to Bryant for incorrectly claiming that he was facing criminal charges. Two months later, Bryant sued the publication, citing other allegedly defamatory claims. 12

Leadership

Andrew Lack is the executive chairman of Deep South Today and the former chairman of NBC News. 13 Lack spent a little over five years at NBC before leaving abruptly in 2020, with some sources indicating he had been forced out as part of a leadership restructuring. During his tenure, Lack was frequently criticized for his management decisions, including the refusal of NBC to air a report on the apparent sexual misconduct of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and the hiring of right-leaning commentator Megyn Kelly. While Lack was in charge at NBC, reports also surfaced that he had been involved in an extramarital affair with a subordinate several decades prior, when he held a management position at CBS News. 14

Warwick Sabin joined Deep South Today as its inaugural president and chief executive officer in August 2023. He served in the Arkansas state legislature as a Democrat from 2013 until 2019. 15

Adam Ganucheau is the editor in chief of Mississippi Today. He previously worked for several other publications covering the region. He has also written for the New York Times and the Washington Post. 16

Kayleigh Skinner is the managing editor of Mississippi Today. She started out with the publication in January 2017 as a reporter covering education. Skinner previously worked for the Tennessee affiliate of Chalkbeat, a nationwide left-of-center education news agency which has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She also completed a reporter instructional program with the left-of-center investigative journalism organization ProPublica, which received founding support from the Open Society Foundations of billionaire liberal activist financier George Soros. 17

David Francis is the executive editor of Verite and the former publisher of the New Orleans-based Times-Picayune. Francis also previously held management positions at the Pepsi-Cola corporation and the Deloitte multinational consulting firm. 18

Lottie Joiner is the assistant managing editor of Verite. She was previously the editor in chief of the Crisis Magazine, the official publication of the NAACP. She has also written for several other publications catering to black audiences, including Ebony, The Grio, and the radical-left online magazine The Root. 19

Financials

Deep South Today’s revenue increased from just over $1.56 million in 2019 to approximately $2.54 million in 2020 to more than $5.18 million in 2021. 20 During that time, major financial backers of the organization’s leading publication Mississippi Today included the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, as well as the Ford Foundation. 21

When the organization launched Verite in 2022, it initially raised nearly $3 million, with a large portion of the funds coming from the Ford Foundation. 22

References

  1. Deep South Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://deepsouthtoday.org/
  2. “Deep South Today.” Ford Foundation. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://fordfoundcontent-deploy.azurewebsites.net/work/our-grants/awarded-grants/awarded-grant/core-support-for-verite-a-new-orleans-based-digital-local-news-platform/146894
  3. Deep South Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://deepsouthtoday.org/
  4. “About Us.” Mississippi Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/about-us/
  5. [1]Bobby Harrison. “Brandon Presley says he would not change Mississippi trans athletes and health care laws.” Mississippi Today. July 26, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/2023/07/26/brandon-presley-trans-laws/
  6. Cary Aspinwall. “These states are using fetal personhood to put women behind bars.” Mississippi Today. July 25, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/2023/07/25/pregnant-women-prosecutions-alabama-oklahoma
  7. “About Us.” Verite. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://veritenews.org/about-us/
  8. Steve Burge. “Verite Launches a Non-Profit Newsroom in New Orleans, Powered by WordPress.” KinshiPress. August 4, 2022. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://kinshipress.com/verite/
  9. Josie Abugov. “1 year after Roe v. Wade overturned, local advocacy groups keep fighting.” Verite. June 23, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://veritenews.org/2023/06/23/1-year-after-roe-v-wade/
  10. Cary Aspinwall. “These states are using fetal personhood to put women behind bars.” Mississippi Today. July 25, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/2023/07/25/pregnant-women-prosecutions-alabama-oklahoma/
  11. “Anna Wolfe and Mississippi Today win Pulitzer Prize for ‘The Backchannel’ investigation.” Mississippi Today. May 8, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/2023/05/08/anna-wolfe-mississippi-today-pulitzer/
  12. Michael Goldberg. “Former Mississippi governor sues news site over welfare fraud comments.” Associated Press. July 27, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-welfare-scandal-phil-bryant-lawsuit-6e44e111d01f29d19cf069bb9d8038bb
  13. [1]“Board of Directors.” Deep South Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://deepsouthtoday.org/board-of-directors/
  14. David Folkenflik. “NBC News Chief Andrew Lack Out After Tenure Marked By Scandal.” NPR. May 4, 2020. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://www.npr.org/2020/05/04/850292571/nbc-news-chief-andrew-lack-out-after-tenure-marked-by-scandal
  15. “Warwick Sabin to join Deep South Today as inaugural president, CEO.” Mississippi Today. August 2, 2023. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/2023/08/02/warwick-sabin-deep-south-today/
  16. [1]“Adam Ganucheau.” Mississippi Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/adam-ganucheau-2/
  17. “Kayleigh Skinner.” Mississippi Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/kayleigh-skinner-2/
  18. “Our team.” Verite. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://veritenews.org/our-team/
  19. “Our team.” Verite. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://veritenews.org/our-team/
  20. [1]“Deep South Today.” ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/472158741
  21. [1]“Who Funds Us?” Mississippi Today. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://mississippitoday.org/who-funds-us/
  22. Steve Burge. “Verite Launches a Non-Profit Newsroom in New Orleans, Powered by WordPress.” KinshiPress. August 4, 2022. Accessed August 9, 2023. https://kinshipress.com/verite/
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Nonprofit Information

  • Accounting Period: December - November
  • Tax Exemption Received: March 1, 2015

    • Available Filings

    Period Form Type Total revenue Total functional expenses Total assets (EOY) Total liabilities (EOY) Unrelated business income? Total contributions Program service revenue Investment income Comp. of current officers, directors, etc. Form 990
    2021 Dec Form 990 $5,184,768 $2,205,634 $5,242,208 $51,535 Y $5,137,666 $32,082 $8,578 $304,497
    2020 Dec Form 990 $2,545,161 $1,958,209 $2,531,175 $319,636 Y $2,528,142 $13,522 $4,322 $326,226
    2019 Dec Form 990 $1,560,107 $1,990,659 $1,686,665 $62,078 Y $1,549,230 $10,807 $70 $294,247 PDF
    2018 Dec Form 990 $2,117,316 $1,748,406 $2,089,688 $33,982 Y $2,104,678 $12,583 $55 $371,755 PDF
    2017 Dec Form 990 $542,373 $1,568,978 $1,721,545 $34,749 Y $528,162 $14,192 $19 $297,751 PDF
    2016 Dec Form 990 $1,178,804 $1,166,953 $2,759,819 $46,419 Y $1,202,081 $11,750 $1 $283,347 PDF
    2015 Dec Form 990 $2,859,190 $157,641 $2,730,205 $28,656 N $2,858,549 $0 $641 $111,416 PDF

    Deep South Today

    750 Woodlands Parkway, Suite 100
    Ridgeland, MS 39157-5222