Launching the Developing Story Project to foster reporting on nuclear weapons issues around the world

Nuclear threats are on the rise as decades-old security alliances shift and realign day by day. There is an urgent need for ongoing coverage of nuclear weapons and related issues—not only when they are in the headlines, but the kind of dogged, sustained reporting on a scale that matches this moment. Nuclear weapons are not only a story about the grainy past or the hypothetical future. This is an ongoing story that needs ongoing coverage as it continues to shift, change, and evolve. Not just a headline or a breaking news alert, but a developing story.

In surveying journalists, editors, and media professionals, the Stanley Center found several obstacles to covering nuclear weapons issues: limited funding and capacity, a perception that the topic is too technical, and a lack of community among journalists reporting on the topic. There is also a perception that audiences aren’t interested, which results in editorial de-prioritization.

The Developing Story Project is designed to encourage and support journalists, editors, and other media professionals to foster, strengthen, increase, and sustain reporting on nuclear weapons issues around the world—and to help them connect and collaborate with others in a community of practice. It also aims to begin engaging with the next generation of journalists and media-makers, including journalism students, to help build an on-ramp for new talent interested in covering this topic to find a community, resources, and learning opportunities as they enter the field.

To do this, the Stanley Center will program a variety of virtual and in-person community-of-practice-building activities—such as training, workshops, fellowships, networking events, film screenings, dialogue, and reporting trips—organized in collaboration with various partners.

Photo credit: Atomic Reporters

Beginning in the spring of 2025, the Stanley Center will partner with the European Journalism Center and the Asian American Journalists Association’s Asia Chapter to deliver a series of virtual learning sessions for journalists who want to report—or report more—on nuclear weapons and related issues. Later in 2025, the Stanley Center and partners will offer in-person on-site programming in Japan and Austria, where journalists will report, develop their skills, expand their source networks, and further build their community of practice. As the Developing Story Project continues in 2026, the Stanley Center will collaborate with additional partners, journalism schools, to ensure that the next generation of journalists has what it needs to cover this existential threat with the accuracy and urgency it requires.

To learn more about the Developing Story Project, and the Stanley Center’s efforts to support and sustain reporting on nuclear weapons at this critical moment, sign up for updates here.

TOP IMAGE CREDIT: Atomic Reporters.