What We Do | Who We Are | Training and Mentoring |Awards
What We Do
The California Newsroom is a collaboration among KQED (San Francisco), CapRadio (Sacramento), LAist (Los Angeles), KCRW (Los Angeles), KPBS (San Diego), CalMatters, NPR and more than a dozen other public media organizations around the state, which strengthens the quality of local news and amplifies stories that otherwise might not reach statewide or national audiences.
Our collaborations focus exclusively on news that happens in California or directly affects Californians.
The California Newsroom:
• provides one-on-one mentorship and training for public radio reporters, editors and newsroom managers across California’s public radio ecosystem, including those who are a part of the innovative UC Berkeley Journalism Fellows program.
• helps public media newsroom managers implement best practices and standards, according to NPR guidelines.
• edits, project-manages and consults on large-scale investigations for statewide NPR stations and nonprofit newsrooms that expose wrongdoing, corruption, government dysfunction and other matters of public interest, and have the potential to effect change.
• coordinates statewide coverage of breaking news events between large and small NPR member stations and NPR in order to maximize resources and provide the best possible public service to listeners and readers.
• sustains ongoing content sharing and partnerships between NPR stations and other public media outlets throughout California.
Who We Are
Amy Isackson
NPR Collaborations Editor
Amy Isackson plays a vital role in supporting the California Newsroom to produce high-quality, meaningful journalism for local, regional and national audiences. She works closely with small stations to do intensive training and coaching with reporters and editors to help strengthen their local news and produce pieces for statewide and national air. Amy also helps newsrooms meet NPR’s standards and practices. She works to build relationships between stations and NPR and nurture relationships within the system. She began her public radio career at KPBS in San Diego reporting on the U.S.-Mexico border and immigration. Amy has worked as an editor for NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered and served as the interim southern bureau chief on the national desk. Her work as an editor and reporter has been recognized with numerous awards.
AIsackson@npr.org
Mike Kessler
Senior Investigative Editor
Mike Kessler works with public media newsrooms throughout the state in a range of capacities, from investigative advisor and top editor to lead editor and project manager. He makes sure that all of the collaboration’s investigative work meets NPR’s standards and best practices. He occasionally co-reports digital stories with team members or reporters from other California outlets. Before joining the California Newsroom in 2022, Kessler was senior editor of investigations and projects at LAist, where he edited or co-edited most of the newsroom’s investigative stories for digital, radio and podcast. Kessler is a Sports Emmy winner (with ESPN) and a two-time finalist for the National Magazine Award. Stories he has worked on with the California Newsroom have won national and regional Murrow Awards. He lives in Los Angeles.
mkessler@kqed.org; Signal: MikeKessler.213
Tony Marcano
Managing Editor
Tony Marcano runs day-to-day operations with the California Newsroom and collaborates with public radio and nonprofit newsrooms across the state to provide editorial support and shared resources. He moved into the role in February 2024 from LAist, where he was managing editor/enterprise and education editor. A veteran of 40-plus years in journalism, Marcano started his career at The Daily News in New York, and later served in reporting and editing roles at the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, the Sacramento Bee, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and NPR. He lives in Los Angeles.
tmarcano@kqed.org
Claire Morgan
Digital Editor/Trainer
Claire Morgan works with public media partners across California on all things related to digital content. She develops and offers training and mentorship focused on content editing, social media, newsletters, SEO and analytics. Before joining The California Newsroom, Claire was Digital Editor and Assignment Manager at CapRadio in Sacramento, where she helped launch the SacramenKnow newsletter and led a team of reporters focused on the Sacramento region. She lives in Sacramento. cmorgan@kqed.org
Signal: cmorgsignal.73
Queena Sook Kim
Audio Trainer/Editor
Queena develops training curriculum for Hub partners and individual coaching for journalists at stations. She is a veteran audio reporter, producer, host and editor. Her most recent project was a seven-part podcast called “The Pill Plot,” which focuses on a ragtag group of activists and their quest to bring the abortion pill to the United States. The podcast broke into the top 200 podcasts and was produced for Sony Music Entertainment.
Queena was also a senior editor for Reveal, the weekly investigative reporting show. Before that she was a senior editor at KQED, where she launched its weekend desk, led its Silicon Valley Desk and was host of The California Report. Queena has experience across California; she was a senior reporter covering technology for Marketplace and covered homebuilding and toys at The Wall Street Journal. Her first job in audio was at KPCC (now LAist), where she helped start two weekly radio shows. Queena also teaches audio journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. qkim@kqed.org
Signal: qskim.88
Emily Zentner
Data Journalist
Emily Zentner works with partner newsrooms on investigative stories, trains reporters to use data skills, and reports stories that run on the websites and air of the California Newsroom’s many partner outlets. She was previously data reporter at CapRadio in Sacramento, where she reported stories on wildfire, climate change and police mishandling of sexual assault cases. Her work has been recognized with national Murrow Awards for her reporting on Lake Tahoe’s invasive shrimp population and forest fire prevention, and a PMJA award for CapRadio’s TahoeLand podcast.
ezentner@KQED.org
Training and Mentoring
The California Newsroom provides training and one-on-one mentoring to reporters, editors and other staff across California’s public radio ecosystem.
Awards
Stories and projects produced in collaboration with the California Newsroom have triggered the overhaul of a new law regarding compassionate release for incarcerated people who are dying; led U.S. Congress Members to demand answers from the U.S. Forest Service about failed wildfire mitigation; and spurred lawmakers to create and pass legislation aimed at improving state oversight of nursing homes.
California Newsroom stories and series have won regional and national Murrow Awards, a Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) award, and several other prizes and honors. In May 2025, the California Newsroom won a regional Murrow Award for Investigative Reporting after it published a report that found California police continue to use prone restraint, even though the practice was outlawed in the state in 2022.
The California Newsroom is one of several such collaborations in the U.S., including the Texas, Midwest and Gulf States newsrooms.