Others newsrooms are cutting back on covering City Hall. We’re doubling down.


City Desk isn’t here to just reprint press releases or count votes at the city council meeting.

We live here too, and we want to know who is responsible for delivering on big ideas and how all of us can participate in the process.

In 2025, City Desk was the only local newsroom following campaigns and candidates in city elections full-time. We filed more than 50 stories, including 30 following the more than $3 million spent by candidates and outside groups trying to influence your vote.

Our reporting unmasked a mayoral candidate’s fake credentials for office and uncovered criminal charges against another every other news outlet had missed.


It’s a big job and a lot of upfront work most newsrooms no longer do, but it’s the kind of work that makes the difference between reading about a decision the city already made and having information to impact how the next decision will go.

This year, our small team filed more than 1,000 stories and analysis columns covering neighborhood zoning changes, fights between the mayor and council over Gateway funding and longterm practices by APD to delete text messages to hide public records.

Whether you came to us for election coverage, accountability or just to see that video of APD chasing a pig through traffic, you count on us to explain how ABQ really works.

And we never charge to learn how city hall works because news should be a public service, free to anyone who wants it, without paywalls or popups.

We’re doing something worth investing in, Albuquerque, and we want you to be a part of it, too.

Does my $25 really help?

Yes! Our average public records bill is just under $20 per request. A $25 donation funds a new request and a cup of coffee for the reporter doing the work.

Ditto for a reporter’s subscription to our transcription software for public meetings ($29/mo.) and a ream of paper for the printer ($49).

We’re not kidding when we say every dollar matters.

Help us raise $25,000 by the end of 2025 so we can get to work covering the next mayor and a new council without having to slow down for daily fundraising asks.

Why are you asking for $182 or $365? That’s a weird number.

It may sound like an odd ask, but bigger one-time donations like these are the equivalent of giving just $1 or $0.50 a day ($365 or $182), but as a one-time yearly gift.

Starting the year with a few of those larger donations in the piggy bank gives us the upfront funding to power longterm investigations and new reporting (instead of setting a little aside from smaller donations each month).

You already know we did good work as a scrappy, nonprofit startup. We’re sticking around and inviting you to join in.

We’re building the next chapter one donor at a time, starting with you.

#GivingTuesday update: The New Mexico Local News Fund offered to double the first $3,000 donated by City Desk readers in our Giving Tuesday campaign. Readers stepped up and unlocked that match in less than 24 hours! Thank you NMLNF and readers!

That one day kickoff puts our year-end goal in reach. Don’t let us lose momentum in December. Become a donor now.

City Desk ABQ

Year-End Giving

Choose your level of support to help us meet our year-end goal between Giving Tuesday and Dec. 31. Donations to City Desk are tax-deductible contributions to Citizen Media Group, our nonprofit 501(c)3 publisher.

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  • $8,289.00 Raised
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  • 49 Donors
 

I’d rather start a smaller monthly donation instead. Show me how.

Interested in doing something bigger?

If you have year-end DAF allocations or are open to sponsoring a new project to expand our work, let’s chat.

Your larger gift could fund a student journalist building multimedia content to attract younger readers ($1,200/mo), keep our newsletters running ($1,800/mo), or power the AI tools we use to hold the city accountable.

Let’s chat: Pat Davis (founder/publisher): pat[a t]newmexico.news