New York Focus Adds Director of Growth and Climate Reporter

Thanks to the support of our readers, New York Focus is growing!

New York Focus   ·   May 1, 2026
Kyle Constable (left) and Amudalat Ajasa (right) | New York Focus

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We have some news!

New York Focus is thrilled to announce Kyle Constable has joined our team as Director of Growth. He’ll help Focus reach more New Yorkers across the state through new products, digital growth strategies, partnerships, and more. He previously led audience and reader revenue growth at The Assembly NC and The Connecticut Mirror, and has consulted for more than a half-dozen other statewide and local newsrooms. He also spent nearly two years working as a reporter in CT Mirror’s newsroom.

A key part of Kyle’s role is to get to know our readers better, so he wants to hear from you! Reach out: kyle@nysfocus.com.

We are also excited to announce our incoming interim climate reporter, Amudalat Ajasa, who will cover this critical beat for five months while reporter Colin Kinniburgh is on parental leave. Amudalat comes to Focus from The Washington Post, where she wrote about the effects of air, water and chemical pollution on human health. Prior to that, she worked at The New York Times, where she investigated the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations in public housing.

Amudalat is stepping in as New York’s climate battles reach a fever pitch. What should she cover first? Have any tips? Reach out: amudalat@nysfocus.com.

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New York is an incongruous state. We’re home to fabulous wealth — if the state were a country, it would have the tenth largest economy in the world — but also the highest rate of wealth inequality. We’re among the most diverse – but also the most segregated. We passed the nation’s most ambitious climate law — but haven’t been meeting its deadlines and continue to subsidize industries hastening the climate crisis.

As New York’s only statewide nonprofit news publication, our journalism exists to help you make sense of these contradictions. Our work scrutinizes how power works in the state, unpacks who’s really calling the shots, and reveals how obscure decisions shape ordinary New Yorkers’ lives.

In the last two decades, the number of local news outlets in New York has been nearly slashed in half, allowing elected officials and powerful individuals to increasingly operate in the dark — with the average New Yorker none the wiser.

We’re on a mission to change that. Our work has already shown what can happen when those with power know that someone is watching, with stories that have prompted policy changes and spurred legislation. We have ambitious plans for the rest of the year and beyond, including tackling new beats and more hard-hitting stories — but we need your help to make them a reality.

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Thank you,

Akash Mehta
Editor-in-Chief
A photo of Akash Mehta.