As part of the expansion of its Local News Initiative, Grist is excited to announce a new local partnership with Deep South Today, a nonprofit news network that includes Verite News in Louisiana and Mississippi Today.
Grist has added Verite’s senior climate and environment reporter Tristan Baurick as the newsroom’s fifth local reporter. In addition, Grist and Deep South Today will work together to develop a similar new reporting position that will work in both the Mississippi Today and Grist newsrooms.
Before joining Verite in 2024, Baurick was a coastal and environment reporter at The Times-Picayune | Nola.com. His special projects included an in-depth look at the potential for offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico; a long-form story about the relocation of a Louisiana tribal community; and a series with New Orleans Public Radio about water management in the Netherlands and the lessons it holds for Louisiana.
Baurick’s work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, National Association of Science Writers, and National Headliner Awards. He was part of a reporting team that won the Society of Environmental Journalists’ top overall award and its investigative reporting prize. He was awarded a year-long Ted Scripps environmental journalism fellowship at the University of Colorado – Boulder and was an MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative fellow in 2021. He previously worked for newspapers in Washington state, where he covered government affairs, the outdoors, and public lands. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, ProPublica, and Audubon magazine.
“Verite News’ partnership with Grist allows us to expand the footprint of Baurick’s award-winning reporting on climate issues affecting Louisiana and Mississippi. It also provides us with invaluable resources to do the work that is needed to highlight these important environmental issues,” Verite Editor-in-Chief Terry Baquet said.
“I’m a big fan of Grist and the work they do,” Baurick said. “I look forward to teaming up with their talented staff.”
The new partnership marks the continued growth of Grist’s Local News Initiative, which aims to bolster coverage of climate change in communities across the United States through partnerships with local newsrooms. Grist already has reporters embedded with WABE in Georgia, IPR in Michigan, WBEZ in Illinois, and BPR in North Carolina.
“Climate change impacts every community, every region differently,” said Katherine Bagley, Grist’s executive editor. “Tristan’s work has long exemplified the best environmental reporting showing these impacts specific to the Gulf. Combined with Verite’s sharp, in-depth reporting and growing audience, it is a powerhouse partnership that Grist is honored to join and strengthen.”
ABOUT GRIST
Grist is an award-winning, nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to highlighting climate solutions and uncovering environmental injustices. Since 1999, we have used the power of journalism to engage the public about the perils of the most existential threat we face. Now that three-quarters of Americans recognize that climate change is happening, we’ve shifted our focus to show that a just and sustainable future is within reach.
ABOUT DEEP SOUTH TODAY
Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes Mississippi Today and Verite News. Founded in 2016, Mississippi Today is now one of the largest newsrooms in the state, and in 2023 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. Verite News launched in 2022 in New Orleans, where it covers inequities facing communities of color. With its regional scale and scope, Deep South Today is rebuilding and re-energizing local journalism in communities where it had previously eroded, and ensuring its long-term growth and sustainability.