[11] In a 2021 interview with Open the Government, NLA executive director Fran Reilly explained, "We have created an expanded program that is designed to meet the urgency of the lack of DEI in journalism—we will soon be rolling out the Transformative Transparency Project, which still uses a data collection framework to gain insights to understand the full scope of the problem, but is expanded to include tools, resources and programs to help newsrooms improve their DEI culture, and set and reach diversity goals.
In 2021, NLA choose not to release the results of that year's diversity survey, citing problems with the collected demographic information.
[14] Sunshine Week is a national initiative spearheaded by the News Leaders Association to educate the public about the importance of open government and freedom of information.
[16] In December 2023, NLA transferred stewardship of Sunshine Week to the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information (FOI) Project at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications.
Ron Nixon, Associated Press global investigations editor, was named the inaugural News Leader of the Year.