by Joe Siegel

Chicago’s Windy City Times and San Francisco’s Bay Area Reporter were among the LGBTQ publications that participated in the first ever Local News Day on April 9, which was billed as “a national day of action connecting communities with trusted local news.”

“Our mission is simple: reconnect people to trusted local outlets, empower newsrooms to grow, and spark a national movement that sustains local news for generations,” according to the event’s website. “Local News Day is led by a coalition of journalists, nonprofit leaders, and media innovators, including Montana Free Press, American Journalism Project, Press Forward, and many more. Together, we are united to strengthen and uplift trusted local news and information across the country.”

The website features a newsroom locator for each state at https://localnewsday.org/newsrooms/

The Windy City Times sent a message out to its readers in an e-blast.

“Today is Local News Day — a national moment to celebrate and support the local journalism that keeps communities informed, connected and seen,” the message read. “But even at local outlets, LGBTQ+ stories too often go uncovered. That’s why Windy City Times is committed to reflecting the full breadth of our community here in Chicago. That means reporting across identities, neighborhoods and experiences: uplifting Black and Latino voices through BLACKlines and En La Vida, covering trans communities year-round and making sure no part of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community is overlooked or left behind. Take part in Local News Day today by pitching in to support LGBTQ+ news.”

Ken Schneck, editor of The Buckeye Flame, based in suburban Cleveland, Ohio, also participated in Local News Day.

“It was a wonderful opportunity to highlight that The Buckeye Flame stands as Ohio’s only LGBTQ+ newsroom and one of only a handful of both nonprofit LGBTQ+ newsrooms as well as statewide LGBTQ+ newsrooms in the country. Through our social media posts, we did indeed receive a spike in donations,” Schneck said.

In total, “More than 1,300 newsrooms all across the country marked the inaugural Local News Day yesterday on behalf of community-based journalism,” journalist and author Charles Sennott reported on his GroundTruth Substack account. “Proclamations were signed by state, city and town governments to officially recognize the importance of trusted, local journalism in bringing communities together around shared sets of facts.”

“What seems most striking about the success of the initiative is the way in which local communities are starting to tell the story of why local journalism matters in their communities. I have believed for a long time that we as journalists need to do a much better job telling the story of the decline of our own industry and the threat it poses to our craft and to truth itself, and this movement should spur us on to do so,” Sennott wrote.

“More than a fundraising campaign, the success of Local News Day seemed to be most pronounced around increasing awareness of the crisis in local news and the way in which it has contributed to a crisis in our democracy. And equally important, the day was a chance to highlight the incredibly exciting innovation that is underway in local journalism with dozens of new start-up and innovative ideas helping to sustain local news coverage that serves local communities all across the country.”

IN THE NEWS
Volume 28
Issue 3