You may recognize Thomas Friestad. For the past six years, he’s covered some of the biggest development and economic stories shaping Kansas City as a reporter for the Kansas City Business Journal.

On Oct. 19, Thomas will join The Beacon as our new senior reporter covering Kansas City’s City Hall.

His arrival comes just a few weeks after Allison Dikanovic joined us as editor-in-chief, and I’m excited about what we’re building together. Thomas brings deep knowledge of Kansas City to a newsroom that is growing its capacity to do ambitious, sustained accountability reporting, and his work will be freely available to everyone in the community.

When I talk to people about covering Kansas City government, I hear versions of the same story over and over. There was a time when reporters had their own office at City Hall, and it was packed with journalists who were there every day, asking questions, following meetings and getting to know how the city worked. Many stayed on the beat long enough that their tenure outlasted the elected officials they covered. They carried an institutional memory of City Hall that was part of the civic process.

City Hall didn’t change that. The business model for local news did. As newsrooms have gotten smaller, there are simply fewer reporters with the time to be at City Hall every day and stay on a beat long enough to build that same kind of institutional knowledge.

The Beacon is part of a broader movement to figure out what comes next for local news. We’re not going to rebuild the City Hall press corps of decades past, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find new and better ways to serve our community. We have to be creative, try new things and rethink how we cover local government. Adding Thomas means another experienced journalist who can dig deeper, connect the dots and stick with stories over time.

I think that kind of sustained attention means even more heading into an important local election year.

A national search brought us back to Kansas City

It’s a difficult moment in journalism. Newsrooms across the country are shrinking, talented journalists are losing jobs, and many others are thinking hard about where they can do their best work. At the same time, The Beacon’s profile is growing. We’re doing more ambitious work, reaching more people and building a reputation as a place where journalists can do meaningful work with real community impact.

We saw both of those things in this search. We received 72 applications from journalists across the region and around the country. In the end, we stayed close to home.

Thomas has spent the past six years at the Kansas City Business Journal covering commercial real estate and development on the Missouri side of the metro. The Business Journal does important work covering the businesses, institutions and development decisions shaping Kansas City, and Thomas has built a lot of knowledge of the city through that reporting. His reporting has included development incentives, public financing, Port KC, housing and economic development, along with major public-private projects like the ongoing effort to build a new Royals stadium.

His work has been recognized by the Kansas Press Association and, more recently, by American City Business Journals for his continuing coverage of the Royals’ stadium search and reporting on data centers and public incentives. Before coming to Kansas City, Thomas reported in eastern Iowa and the Philadelphia suburbs. He is a graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism.

With so much happening in Kansas City right now, and a local election coming, having someone who already understands the city was important to us.

We’re adding eyes to City Hall

Thomas joins a local government reporting effort that has been growing at The Beacon. He’ll be focused every day on City Hall, while Josh Merchant will continue covering local government and accountability, with more room to pursue deeper stories across the city and keep an eye on agencies that too often go overlooked. Our Documenters program adds another layer, training and paying Kansas City residents to attend public meetings and produce notes.

“I’m excited for The Beacon to be able to be in more rooms and out in more neighborhoods, connecting with residents about what city decisions mean for them and the future of Kansas City they want,” said Allison Dikanovic, The Beacon’s editor-in-chief.

“Having Thomas, Josh and our Documenters working together means we’ll get to track decisions day-to-day, take a step back to see what forces are influencing them, and follow up often to see if they’re working as intended.”

One of the things Thomas talked about during the interview process was how much he wants to dig into the city budget. We don’t just want to cover the budget when it comes up for a vote. We want someone following those dollars throughout the year: what the city says it’s going to spend, where the money actually goes and what residents get in return.

“I’ve had the fortune of covering many of Kansas City’s defining stories — housing, data centers and stadiums chief among them — from a development standpoint. I’m thrilled to now come aboard The Beacon at a critical moment for the city, as it simultaneously enjoys a global sporting spotlight and billions of dollars in private investment, but also reckons with a potential nine-figure budget shortfall and longstanding issues sustaining services like public safety and transit,” Thomas told The Beacon. “I will be tenacious digging deeper so I can bring you, the community, into City Hall’s complexities, rather than letting them serve as a barrier to entry. Simply put, I want you to come away from my reporting with a better sense of how your government is working for you and where it can do better.”

How this position is funded

We’re able to add this position because of a three-year funding commitment from Progress Kansas City, a Kansas City-based nonprofit organization, to support The Beacon’s City Hall accountability reporting.

We want to be transparent about that relationship. Progress Kansas City is funding this position, but The Beacon retains full editorial control over Thomas’s reporting. Our newsroom decides what he covers, what questions he asks and what we publish. Progress Kansas City does not assign, review or approve stories before publication.

I’m grateful that Progress Kansas City understands why that independence matters and chose to invest in it. Just as important, they made a three-year commitment rather than funding a short-term reporting project. That gives Thomas the chance to stay on the beat, develop sources, build institutional knowledge and keep following stories long after a meeting ends or the news cycle moves on. It’s exactly the kind of long-term investment local journalism needs more of.

“Kansas City, Missouri is in the midst of a defining period of growth and change, and good local government depends on voters being able to see how City Hall works, clearly and consistently. Thanks to the generosity of our donors, The Beacon now has a reporter dedicated full-time to that work in Thomas Friestad. We couldn’t be prouder of The Beacon for making this hire, and we can’t wait to see what Thomas brings to the people of Kansas City,” said Colleen Hernandez, President, Progress Kansas City

Readers can expect regular reporting from City Hall, a weekly newsletter about what’s happening inside city government, frequent accountability reporting and deeper investigative work.

Thomas starts Oct. 19, and we can’t wait to see what he finds.