Data centers – those massive, energy-hogging warehouses spreading across the country – are unifying residents across the political spectrum. No one wants them in their communities. The not-in-my-backyard sentiment is spreading as fast as the proposed developments.
The Indianapolis area is rife with such projects, proposed by tech companies attracted to our region by tax incentives, cheap land and low-cost utilities to support their infrastructure.
These centers are hard to track. They arrive in our communities as land purchases, zoning changes and construction permits filed by shell companies fronting for famous Silicon Valley firms like Amazon Web Services, Anthropic or Meta. Politicians and government officials sometimes sign non-disclosure agreements as they start negotiations.
Indy area newsrooms are scrambling to keep up.
At two recent public events focused on data centers, I talked to news consumers who praised coverage in Mirror Indy, the Indianapolis Business Journal and WFYI. I decided to take a closer look at the coverage. Most news outlets have followed AI data centers one by one as they arrived in the state. Now there are too many in Indiana to cover, and newsrooms are narrowing their focus to the issues most pertinent to their audience.
Indianapolis residents express their thoughts
I asked residents if they were getting the information they needed about these developments from their news sources. Many told me that they were, but just as many said there is room for more analysis.
Indy resident Ashley Hooley said she was an “average neighbor,” until she connected with the two women who started the Protect Decatur Township Facebook page. Then she became a “concerned citizen and canvasser” for the grassroots group fighting the Sabey Corporation’s data center on the southwest side of town. She likes Mirror Indy’s coverage, but said the media could do a better job showing the financial connections between politicians and the developers behind these projects.
Paula Brooks, environmental justice director for Hoosier Environmental Council, was recruited by the community to support the resident-led Protect Martindale-Brightwood Coalition, created to oppose the Metrobloks data center on the east side. She said WFYI and Mirror Indy have done “a wonderful job” covering residents’ concerns about the health impacts and environmental risks, but not so much on explaining the risky development and financing model of the startup Metrobloks.
Bryce Gustafson, organizer for the utilities watchdog Citizens Action Coalition, said this is the most covered subject he’s ever seen, but wishes newsrooms were staffed enough to commit the resources needed to do investigative stories on data centers.
Newsroom strategies give consumers new ways to understand the story
At first, Mirror Indy, like other area publications, followed each AI data center separately as plans materialized in Indianapolis neighborhoods. On March 2, after reporters had a grasp of the basics, Mirror Indy published a webpage chronicling developments for three proposed data center sites, the community’s reaction, and the potential environmental impacts all in one place.
The Indianapolis Business Journal and WFYI have refined their coverage strategies to leverage their expertise. The IBJ is exploring the topic as it pertains to economic development, city government, real estate and the technology industry. WFYI’s investigative reporter is pursuing information about data centers.
Most of Mirror Indy’s reporting focuses on how this latest generation of data centers will impact people living nearby.
“We’re community-based news,” said Editor-in-Chief Oseye Boyd, in January, describing Mirror Indy’s mission. “So, if we’re going to do community, we need to actually do community. That means talking to people, which is harder. It is harder to find people, real people, and not just go straight to the experts every time.”
Mirror Indy Westside reporter Enrique Saenz likes to wander his neighborhood snapping photos. He uses data centers as an icebreaker for chatting up the people he encounters, collecting their concerns and questions. He and other reporters, including Elizabeth Gabriel, Southside reporter, and Darian Benson, who covers the Eastside, attend city, community and neighborhood meetings to collect questions and insights from community members. The nonprofit newsroom’s reporters also use group texts for their beats, where the public can send their questions, tips and feedback on data center stories.
Mirror Indy also produced a video for social media that explained that everyone accesses traditional data centers every day and why AI data centers raise new concerns. Saenz, Gabriel, and Benson collaborated to produce a primer to explain the basics about data centers.
Taking a different approach, the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) uses its coverage to ask what data centers mean for the business community and economic prospects for the city.
IBJ Editor Lesley Weidenbener told me her staff’s reporting leverages the outlet’s deep expertise in real estate, economics and the tech industry, while recognizing that community reaction is also important.
“But, you know, the data center debate is so much bigger. It’s also about who is going to provide the computing power that is going to drive economic development into the future,” she said.
Several IBJ reporters are chipping away at this story: statehouse and economic development reporter Marek Mazurek; commercial real estate reporter Mickey Shuey; city government reporter Taylor Wooten; and tech reporter Susan Orr. These reporters rely on their expertise from their beats, or focus areas, and gather questions from readers’ comments on their stories.
IBJ reporters are skilled at tracking down real estate owners, as they demonstrated in an October 2025 story about the problematic use of nondisclosure agreements in data center development. Now, IBJ reporters are examining how long large data centers will be needed, as quantum computing evolves technology requirements.
“AI is changing so quickly that it’s really important that we all stay on top of these issues and not think we have it figured out,” Weidenbener said. “I think we just have to keep trying harder every day.”
WFYI Managing Editor Eric Weddle echoes that need to evolve the conversation for listeners. He sees public broadcasting’s reporting strength as a two-pronged approach: bringing the voices of those impacted community members to the forefront and explaining the complexity of the bureaucracy surrounding data center developments.
WFYI investigative reporter Farrah Anderson is tackling this issue. Her on-the-ground reporting includes in-depth digital stories, 45-second radio spots and Instagram Reels that answer audience questions. Anderson’s story about the lack of legislative action demonstrates the in-depth analysis WFYI is known for in its framing of broader, statewide and regulatory impacts of data centers.
“This is a state-backed industrial expansion and a lot of these deals seem to be happening behind closed doors for our audience,” Weddle said. “We’ve really seen this come up as a critical accountability issue.”
How to find the information you need
No local news outfit can claim absolute expertise on data centers yet. Reporters are building knowledge as they learn more about the industry. We aren’t seeing deep investigative stories because it takes time for reporters to develop sources, whether official or anonymous, at tech companies, municipalities and utility firms.
If you’re trying to understand this topic, you’ve got options:
- To get a foundational understanding, check out Mirror Indy’s guide.
- If big-picture, regional economic and business opportunity analysis is required, IBJ Media has you covered through two publications: search IBJ and Indiana INside Business for stories about data centers.
- If you need policy and bureaucratic developments explained, WFYI will answer your questions and take you through those discussions as they evolve.
No one can definitively answer all the tough questions about how hyperscale data centers will impact residents. As a news consumer, your questions will drive your consumption. If you want all those questions answered, you’ll have to work for it. My advice is to start with a primary source like Mirror Indy that will answer most of your questions, then dip into additional sources to satisfy your unmet needs.
Tracey Compton is Poynter’s Indianapolis Public Editor. You can send your questions about local media to her at indypubliceditor@poynter.org.
Mirror Indy publishes the Indianapolis public editor columns as part of a partnership with Poynter Institute to increase media literacy and trust in local journalism.