Marc Lacey

James and Deborah Fallows, flying around in a small propeller airplane, embarked on a years-long journey to the heartland of America, which they recount in “Our Towns.”

Journalists spend a great deal of time and attention on the very first paragraph of their articles — the lede. That’s why we honor the best ones.

With one of the largest teams of national correspondents in the business, we help the country to understand itself. Watch with us on Tuesday as we co-sponsor the Democratic debate.

We have started a new experiment aimed at including our readers more directly in the journalistic process.

A good poem can jolt our minds into thinking about the country’s most important stories in unexpected ways, our National editor writes.

One doesn’t find outright panic in airports and on airplanes across the United States. Rather, it’s anguish that the next sneeze might be the fateful one.

“Cry Havoc,” by Michael Signer, the former mayor of Charlottesville, Va., and “The Violence Inside Us,” by the Connecticut senator Chris Murphy, grapple with racial tension, gun violence and errors of leadership.

What do more than 45 journalists spread out across the country have in common? This mission statement.

There are numerous similarities between the Simpson and Chauvin cases, including defendants who have become household names and media outlets broadcasting the cases live into homes across America.

Photographers captured historic moments of war, grief and wonder that defined the year.