Mission:
To nourish public debate of state-level issues, which in recent years have not gotten the media attention they deserve.

Background:
A project of the Pew Research Center, Stateline.org was founded in 1999 to provide journalists with electronic resources and research materials on state policy innovations and trends, which in turn would enable them to make their reporting more informative and useful. As the site's readership has grown, so has its target audience, which now includes state officials, students of state government, and citizens who want to keep track of events in their state capital as well as in other states. Stateline.org publishes free online news stories every weekday and printed reference materials, such as the annual State of the States report, on occasion.

Outstanding Web Features:
The site features archived news stories arranged by state and topic (e.g., education, homeland security, and social policy). It also offers commentary by syndicated columnist Neal Peirce and other experts; a schedule of the 2008 presidential primaries; a list of state- and issue-oriented blogs; state data resources; downloadable toolbars; and an archive of state-of-the-state addresses since 2000. Visitors to the site can also access interactive state elections guides from 2006 and 2007, and/or sign up for RSS feeds for any one of the fifty states.