Your County. Your Stories.

From the publisher, Andrea Bruce:

"Down in the County" is a visual-first local online publication I formed in Pamlico County, NC, where I grew-up, to help grow and preserve our community's written history and provide non-partisan daily coverage.

Our articles celebrate the people of Pamlico County, North Carolina--as the Secota and Pamlico who are indigenous to this land are said to have called it in the Algonquian language, TaTaku, "where the land and the sea meet the sky."

Today, around 12,000 people live in this rural county in eastern North Carolina. We have two stoplights and seven dollar stores. The farmlands and backyard creeks that snake through the county from the Pamlico Sound are as beautiful and unknown as the people who live and work here. "Down in the County" covers school board meetings, proms, loggers, shrimp trawlers, the county jail and all of the things that make us who we are.

Down in the County was founded by photojournalist Andrea Bruce who, after 15 years documenting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and other regions, has turned her lens and pen toward her home in Pamlico County, North Carolina.

Read more about her journey.

Editorial Independence

We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:

Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN's Membership Standards.

Donor Transparency

Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. We operate with a fiscal sponsor who is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust. They may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.

Our news judgments are made independently - not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

Our Board

John Bemis
Ellen Chappell
Perry Cheatham
Kashanti Collins
Eugene Elliott
Keith Gapen
Robbin Haigler