Published on Jan 29, 2025
Leia em português
Núcleo is an award-winning independent journalism organization that covers the impact of digital platforms and artificial intelligence on society, using technology, data, and social media investigation techniques.
Our main mission is to be at the forefront of the newstech sector (journalism + technology) in Brazil and Latin America.
In this report, we present a comprehensive overview of the activities carried out in 2024, highlighting the monthly project deliveries that propelled our organization.
We also address the editorial and journalistic advancements that enriched our content and impact, as well as new technology products developed to meet market demands.
This document is a collective creation of our collaborators and reflects Núcleo's commitment to innovation and journalistic excellence.
Introduction
It is not east, but we are still here
FROM THE DIRECTOR
2024 was a challenging year for Núcleo. I can say, without much hesitation, that it was the MOST intense year since our creation in January 2020 – even considering an important election year right in the middle.
The thing is: having a 100% independent journalism organization is very, very hard, with many obstacles. First, there's the money issue, which is always tight and presente, especially considering how much stuff we do.
Second, because Big Tech no longer cares about journalism – which makes our work harder (less transparency, less resources, less accountability) , but also more necessary.
Third, because journalism is changing in many ways (format, language, trust, etc.), and although we're at the forefront of this transformation, always focusing on quality and innovation, we still stumble on the many barriers placed in our way. It is as if we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it's farther away than it seems from where we are.
But not everything is a struggle.
Despite the challenges, we've never had so much impact, so much audience, so many applications running, and so many fantastic people reading, interacting, and supporting what we do – and also working with us. We've created a fantastic community that makes the tons of sweat and tears we've spent on this journey worthwhile.
Hence community is our word for 2025. No matter how good an investigation or app might be, without our community, we are nothing. Much of our energy will be directed towards those who follow us, and perhaps this way we'll all walk together on this great journey called independent journalism.
Sérgio Spagnuolo
founder and executive director
Key Numbers
Institutional
Team, impact and transparency
In 2024, Nucleo worked intensively to deliver impactful reporting, to expand our audience and community, to strengthen our brand and to remain at the forefront of technological development focused on journalism.
This led us to create an internal goal in order to show something new to the public every month, no matter how small, as an incentive to bring projects to life. We called this our delivery truck.
The "delivery truck" strategy aimed at keeping out projects always fresh and put extra gas into Nucleo's innovations and experiments, which have always been part of our DNA.
This approach, combined with our excellent investigative reporting and distribution strategies, helped Núcleo break through the audience bubble at several points in 2024. We know how difficult this is, but we were able to finish another year with growth in website numbers, social networks, newsletters, and, most importantly, supporters.
We know the value our initiative has for today's society, but we decided to show this more directly. We changed our slogan to Journalism for a better internet and enhanced the promotion of our impact.
Along with the change, we revamped our membership program, which we consider one of our most valuable revenue sources for the future. These are people who believe in our mission and support us financially to keep moving forward.
And we will continue to come up with several ideas on how to make Núcleo better, supported by our first independent council, created in 2024 and formed by six colleagues whom we greatly admire.
It was a year of many innovations, strategy revisions, and diverse actions. It was also when we consolidated our internationalization, holding our first event outside Brazil. And there's much more to come!
Jade Drummond
director of operations
Our team
Núcleo brings together a team of professionals with expertise from fields like investigative reporting, data analysis, digital strategy, editorial products, and tech development.
From left to right: Felippe Mercurio • Lucas Lago • Aleksandra Ramos • Gabriela Takahashi • Sérgio Spagnuolo • Alexandre Orrico • Michel Gomes • Sofia Schurig • Milena Giacomini • Rafael Calpena • Jade Drummond • Rodolfo Almeida • Henrique Rieger • Chloé Pinheiro • Pedro Nakamura • Héctor Moraes.
Delivery truck
We are committed to always delivering new things for our audience and partners, which is why we announce something new every month, a practice we affectionately call our 'delivery truck.'
New tagline
Impact
Nucleo primary audience are third sector agents, academics, lawyers, communication professionals, and the press, and our journalism is mainly guided by the impact we can have on these individuals.
>> More details here (in Portuguese)
Big Tech Investigation Lab
We organized our first international event in partnership with the Latin American Center for Investigative Journalism (CLIP).
The project was supported by Luminate Group and supported by Harmony Project.
MonitorA Project
In the 2024 municipal elections, we participated in the third edition of MonitorA – an online observatory of gender political violence, developed by the AzMina Institute, InternetLab, and the Digital Humanities Center and Laboratory at the Federal University of Bahia.
MonitorA websiteIn this 2024 edition of MonitorA, the focus of monitoring and analysis was on comments made during YouTube broadcasts of debates promoted by TV and radio stations across Brazil. The data were used in three published reports.
MonitorA saved my life because the judges simply did not believe in the violence I suffered. In the last election I contested, 95% of the violence performed on social media was directed at me. This provided me with the tools for the legal battles, which we know are absolutely arduous."
– Former politician Manuela D’Ávila in nov.2024.
Transparency
Núcleo insists on having 100% independence from donors, partners, and funders. There is no interference in the direction of the company or in our journalism.
Editorial
In 2024, Núcleo made a bold editorial shift by cutting out reheated news pickups – those recycled stories that just echo other outlets without adding anything new – to focus entirely on original content.
We restructured our approach to better gather firsthand information, which also include fresh perspectives on the news and analysis. This editorial overhaul did more than just sharpen our identity as an independent journalism outlet – it set a new bar for quality in our coverage, putting depth and exclusive reporting front and center across our content formats.
We've been pushing hard to expand our reach through newsletters, with five standout products leading the charge: Garimpo, Polígono, Prensadão, Mosaico, and Appetrecho. A highlight was launching Mosaico, our new newsletter that shares curated reading recommendations and summaries picked by our team.
Our 2024 editorial output – including 47 original reports and 4 special investigations – showcases our dedication to deep, quality journalism that makes a difference.
Alexandre Orrico
editorial director
Audience and community
Our audience in 2024 grew by 40% compared to 2023, largely reflecting the increased brand recognition, as well as the quality and relevance of the reporting in our coverage area.
1.4 million visits in 2024
up 40% vs 2023
1.1 million unique visitors
up 36%
In 2024, our production of articles and reports saw a 27% decrease compared to 2023, largely reflecting a new editorial direction of the team to cover fewer daily news stories and publish more exclusive content.
Art and Design
+65 original illustrations
+75 interactive charts
Premium newsletters
In 2024, Nucleo began offering our readers premium versions of our legacy newsletters: Garimpo and Polígono.
We created dedicated pages for each newsletter and started including exclusive content for subscribers who support our work with BRL5 (USD1) per month.
The subscription is modular; you can support just Garimpo, just Polígono, both, or support the team, which also includes all premium newsletters as a benefit.
We also created new newsletters, a strategy that reflects the growing demand for personalized and curated content that meets the specific needs of readers. In this context, Mosaico emerges as an innovative proposal, offering careful curation by the team, which selects the best content, trends, and news, providing a unique and enriching experience for subscribers.
Meanwhile, Appetrecho stands out as a newsletter dedicated to the world of digital apps, covering everything from launches to tips and tricks for optimizing the use of digital tools.
Innovation
Projects and applications
2024 was a year of game-changing tech projects, highlighted by the development of Xarta and another edition of MonitorA. We also beefed up our Legislatech digital product, adding 15 new government sources to the platform's coverage, making more robust and useful.
We put serious work into upgrading our infrastructure, now running 96 live applications and 25 in staging. This shows just how mature and well-structured our tech ecosystem has become. It's not just about the numbers – it's about building a robust, secure development pipeline.
On the efficiency front, we pulled off something remarkable: slashing our monthly tech infrastructure costs from around R$5,000 to a flat R$450 – that's a 91% reduction without compromising on quality or uptime. It's a huge win for our resource management.
We also modernized our communication tools, linking the Núcleo website with our newsletter system by connecting Ghost CMS to Buttondown. Switching our email operations was another step toward a more streamlined, robust infrastructure, capping off a year of major improvements that allowed commercial scalability.
Felippe Mercurio
diretor of technology
Legislatech
Legislatech is a tool created by Núcleo to monitor public available information in the Brazilian government, scanning various data sources and generating knowledge that can be transformed into actions. It is Núcleo's main technology product.
Visit legisla.tech
Xarta
Xarta is a publishing system that helps keep information on your website always updated through embeddable cards that only need to be changed once to keep information in texts consistently updated across different URLs.
Visit xarta.dev
Sky Pulse is a tool designed to facilitate the download of original posts from Bluesky profiles and analyze some basic engagement metrics.
Observa is an observatory of the federal government's direct spending on major digital platforms since 2018.
The Electoral Boosting Observatory is an application created by Núcleo to monitor campaign spending on social media content boosting, using data provided by the TSE (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral).
Nuclito Resume
Nuclito Resume is an application developed by Núcleo to help our readers quickly and efficiently keep up with the content on the site.
The goal is to optimize the time of those who wish to stay updated with our journalism. The project was developed with support from the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).
Ciência Monitorada
Ciência Monitorada provided free access for one year to Legislatech for 371 members of the scientific community, aiming to facilitate the monitoring of relevant topics for science in Brazilian public documents and the press.
In total, researchers have already found over 630,000 documents through the project. Ciência Monitorada was created by Núcleo, with support from the Serrapilheira Institute and institutional partnership with Agência Bori.
