Netstate

Journalism program

Company data for journalists.

Public records power accountability reporting. For journalists who need company data for a story, Netstate is a source-cited database of 128 million companies — free for verified news organizations and investigative reporters. The same business records our paying customers use, at no cost to the newsroom.

Accountability stories need records that survive a fact-check, so every field is drawn from public filings and carries its source. Below: what access includes, who qualifies, how verification works, and how reporters use the records in an investigation.

01 What the program includes

An approved application gets a Pro account free of charge for 12 months, renewable while you are still reporting: full profile access, registration documents, officers and beneficial owners, addresses, UCC liens, civil litigation and SBA loan history, watchlists with alerts, and PDF & CSV exports — with the source citation on every field so a record can go straight into a story and survive a fact-check. Every field is drawn from publicly available filings, not a black box.

Need bulk records for data journalism or a data-driven investigation? Mention it in the application — we scope data exports for reporters case by case, in a data format you can load straight into your own data analysis, usually without charge.

02 Who qualifies

Staff journalists

Reporters and editors on the masthead of a verified news organization — national, local or trade press. A work email at the outlet is usually enough.

Investigative reporters

Freelance and independent investigative journalists with a record of published work. Send bylines — we verify against the publications, not an employer.

Data journalists

Data journalists and computer-assisted-reporting desks who need a clean database of company records for a story — registrations, officers and liens as CSV, ready for your own analysis and to pair with records from public-records requests.

Nonprofit & consortium newsrooms

Nonprofit newsrooms, journalism collaboratives and cross-border investigative networks. One application can cover several reporters on the same investigation.

PR, content-marketing and research teams at commercial companies don’t qualify — the regular plans cover that work.

03 Company data in investigations

Reporters use Netstate for investigative company research: tracing who really owns a business, mapping secretary-of-state registrations across 61 source registers and 16 federal datasets, and pulling the paper trail — officers and directors, registration numbers, industry (NAICS) codes, addresses, UCC liens, civil litigation and federal awards — behind a news story. Records are resolved into one entity and cited to their filing, so authoritative company data goes into the reporting and stands up on review.

04 How verification works

Every application is reviewed by a person, not a filter. We check that the outlet is a real news organization and that the bylines are yours — a work email at the publication, a masthead or author page, or links to published investigations all work as proof. We reply within a few business days.

What you research on Netstate stays private: we don’t monitor journalists’ searches, and we never notify a company that its records were viewed.

05 Apply

Tell us who you are and where your work runs. The form opens a pre-addressed email — send it and the application lands with the person who reviews the program.