Nucleo's yearly report - 2023

Nucleo Journalism is a data-driven, award-winning independent news organization based in Brazil and created in 2020 that investigates the impact of social media and artificial intelligence in society.

Our mission is to be a leading voice in the newstech sector (journalism + technology).

Main products

In the forefront of AI in journalism

Núcleo was the FIRST journalism organization in Brazil to have open policies for the use of artificial intelligence in newsrooms, with recognition from Harvard's Nieman Lab. 

Our Policy

Investigations with consequences

Nucleo's reporting has had direct impact in both public and corporate policies, and has opened a path for valuable partnerships.

In 2023, our journalism and our projects generated impacts in various categories that we constantly monitor:

• At least 4 news reports helped to support legal cases about platforms
• Our projects were selected for 2 international fellowships
• At least 3 investigations helped to guide public policies
• At least 3 investigations led platforms to moderate illicit content

Nucleo loves to give and receive credit. Transparency in our work and recognition of others' is super important to us.

That's why we always cite and link to other national or foreign outlets, facilitating the exchange of information and promoting the ecosystem of independent journalism.

In 2023, we had a record number of mentions from other outlets:

In addition to having a foothold in science with our own projects, we strive to the utmost to help academic works that use us as a reference.

Thus, last year, we had:

Tech for journalism

How Nucleo invests in technology as a business model and as a way to support the journalism ecosystem

Since the beginning, in 2020, Nucleo has always stood out for its innovation in applications of journalistic utility.

Last year, we developed and improved various tools for internal use that can be accessed by everyone.

Monitors campaigns spending on social media, based on data by the TSE (Superior Electoral Court).

Twitter bot that monitors the progress of legislation on social networks and digital platforms.

An observatory of the federal government's spending on major digital platforms since 2018.

Nuclito is Núcleo's artificial intelligence chatbot that facilitates the search for information on our website.

We also developed our main technology product, the one we believe will be a recurring source of revenue to sustain our journalism in the medium and long term.

In 2023, we launched Legislatech.

Legislatech is a tool developed by Nucleo to monitor public documents in search of subjects of your interest, scouring various data sources and generating knowledge that can be transformed into actions.

Useful, straight to the point, and with innovative design, we want to expand Legislatech to be one of the simplest and most accessible digital products for legislative monitoring in Brazil.

Legislatech has already generated leads for 32 reports made by Nucleo.

LEGISLATECH

Go to Legislatech's site

Numbers rising

In 2023, we hit 1 million pageviews in our website.

If at the end of 2021 we were already happy with our 100,000 pageviews, two years later we are thrilled to add one more zero to the end of that number: in 2023, Núcleo's content exceeded ten times that figure.

This rapid growth is a result of our impact and the quality of our journalism.

Our content productivity also went up, growing 40% against 2022.

NucleoHub, our community

In March, 2023, we launched Brazil's first community server in Discord from a news organization.

Nucleo's community is very important to us. It is made up of our paid subscribers, people subscribed to our newsletters, members of NúcleoHub, and our loyal readers and followers.

In 2023, we adopted different strategies for social networks, not only to grow our numbers, but to better serve our community. Even with that in mind, we managed to grow our follower base.

Now, we have:

Transparency as a mission

Nucleo has always been committed to show where our funding comes from for institutional and project grants.

Our entire operation is guided by transparency, the same principle we demand from Big Techs, the government, and any other institutions.

Núcleo is financed through four pillars:

• Sale of technology services and products to clients and partners (but we never journalistic content);
• Sale of subscriptions to our supporters (take advantage of reading this and subscribe to us here);
• Sale of qualified advertising;
• Grants and funding available to journalistic organizations by companies, foundations, funds, and other organizations.

Institutional

• Creation of an advisory board (Journalism, Technology, Business, Fundraising, Research/Academia)
• Increasing diversity in new hires
• Commercial development
• Enhancing the professionalization of internal processes

Tech

• Advancement of new features for Legislatech
• Development of new products and apps
• Organization of infrastructure on dedicated servers
• Creation of technical technology courses

Journalism and Community

• Creation of a style guide and best practices manual for Núcleo
• Development of a weekly podcast
• Greater emphasis on original reporting and less on news coverage
• Expansion of the community within NúcleoHub

Our team

Nucleo's team is made of professionals committed to journalism and with experience in reporting, investigation, data analysis, technology, digital strategy and products.

Meet the team