Our Mission

The Nashville Banner is a locally owned, community-supported civic news organization. We exist to empower the citizens of Nashville and Tennessee to make informed decisions by providing non-partisan journalism from an independent, nonprofit newsroom. We are digital-first, with no paywall for our stories because we believe everyone should have access to news.

The Banner is a direct response to the decline of public service journalism in Tennessee. 


Board of Directors

Steve Cavendish President & Editor, Nashville Public Media

Bruce Dobie President/CEO, Power Poll

Beth Fortune Retired Vice Chancellor for Public Affairs, Vanderbilt University

Tené Franklin Vice President, Health Leads

Michael Whitley (Chair) New York Times

Advisory Board

Samar Ali, Research Professor, Vanderbilt University, Millions of Conversations

Derek Crownover, Partner, Loeb & Loeb

Alfred Degrafinreid, CEO, Leadership Tennessee

Kriste Goad, Chief Fire Starter, Fuoco

Jose Gonzalez, Faculty, Belmont University; Co-founder and Finance Director, Conexion Americas

Jennifer Johnston, Writer

Baylor Bone Swindell, Principal, The Baylor Company