Climate coverage is nowhere … and everywhere

How earned media is changing as climate desks are abandoned  

Not long ago, the number of journalists covering climate and environmental issues was at an all-time high. In the early 2020s, major news outlets were expanding their climate desks. The Washington Post added 30 journalists. NPR and others made similar investments. There were reporters dedicated to what is arguably the defining issue of our time: how climate change affects business, public health, ecosystems and, well, pretty much everything. 

For those of us in sustainability communications who experience endorphin releases based on seeing a client’s well-told story in print or online, it was a golden era. Reporters I worked with then asked great questions, dug deep for data-backed angles with human interest, and knew how to distinguish meaningful progress from greenwashing. 

Fast forward to today, and on the surface, the landscape looks very different. 

Many of the same forces that have complicated sustainability's place on corporate and political agendas have also affected media. A political environment increasingly hostile to climate science, combined with ongoing economic pressure on news organizations and public attention focused on more immediate concerns like affordability and cost of living, has made it harder for climate journalism to thrive. 

In early 2026, The Washington Post eliminated roughly 74% of its climate desk. (To be fair, the paper reduced about 30% of its newsroom overall.) CBS News also disbanded its dedicated climate unit. They were not alone in making cuts. What's surprising, however, is that the amount of climate-related coverage has remained relatively stable at approximately 0.55% of all news coverage, despite significant fluctuations in the number of journalists assigned to the beat. (Yes, that’s a depressing number relative to climate’s impact.) 

One explanation — and source of hope — may be the same "sustainability is everyone's job" trend we increasingly see within organizations. As climate considerations become integrated into broader business, political, health and economic reporting, coverage shifts from a dedicated beat into every beat. 

When NPR dissolved its standalone climate desk earlier this year, for example, many journalists were folded into broader news teams. The result was a loss of concentrated reporting, certainly, but not necessarily a loss of expertise. Instead, climate stories become embedded across multiple reporting areas from real estate, to finance, to consumer goods. 

The growing frequency of extreme weather events likely plays a role in the consistent amount of coverage as well. Since climate impacts are increasingly harder to separate from daily news, they naturally find their way into stories about infrastructure, insurance, public health, politics and local communities. 

This pattern extends beyond media. Recruiter Ellen Weinreb's recent Chief Sustainability Officer report found that, for the first time since tracking began in 2011, fewer companies employ leaders with the CSO title. Yet the data suggests sustainability itself is not retreating. Budgets remain stable or are increasing in many organizations, and board engagement continues. Rather than disappearing, sustainability expertise appears to be spreading throughout the business. 

Earned media pros need to respond in kind by telling stories that connect climate and sustainability to broader business and societal issues. If climate reporting is increasingly distributed across beats, communicators need to know about how the sustainability angle is integrated, not standalone.  

It’s also worth noting that earned media is increasingly strategic in an AI-driven information ecosystem. According to Muck Rack, 84% of AI citations come from earned media sources, with more than a quarter originating from journalism. Notably, the outlets most frequently cited by AI platforms are not always the traditional prestige publications many communicators prioritize, like the New York Times or Reuters. Axios, for example, consistently ranks among the most cited sources due in part to its concise, highly structured format. 

While my hope is that eventually the amount of coverage dedicated to climate topics grows beyond half of one percent, that growth is unlikely to come from an increase in the number of dedicated journalists. Instead, it will grow by earning compelling stories where broader conversations are already happening.  

I admit it: I liked knowing I was pitching a dedicated climate reporter who truly understood sustainability. But, maybe if climate is increasingly woven into every beat, it’s a sign the story has become impossible to ignore.