Local news is my jam

A few weeks ago, I ordered some new promotional merchandise for The Melody.

We give out merch pretty often, especially when folks stop by our office or when we set up for community events, and I’m passionate about getting good “stuff” while keeping in line with our budget.

I also want to be, well, hip — you know, in the know about what people like and won’t immediately toss in the trash. Since our newsroom is on a college campus and I’ve worked at universities for years, I’ve known for a while that stickers are all the rage right now, so I decided to order some of them.

This is the part where I admit that I’m not hip. I’m closer to broken hip. But I thought of a cute little saying for them, one that ties in with our name: “Local news is my jam.” (Get it? Melody? Jam? Okay.)

Anyway, they turned out great — despite my cheesiness and my inability to order things at the right size. (These were supposed to be 3” x 3” but came in at 1.5” x 1.5”. Oh, well, you live and you learn. Like I said, they’re cute.)

They’re also true. Local news is, indeed, my jam. I’ve been doing it for 20 years now, and I couldn’t really imagine doing anything else. I tell people all the time, and I’ve written it here before, that this is the most exciting time to be in journalism. And people usually look at me like I’m nuts. And honestly, they’re probably right.

But I truly feel that way. It’s a relatively new feeling for me. After years of working on the for-profit side of this business, I made the pivot to nonprofit journalism a few years back. Catch me around town and I’ll give you my spiel about how local news is civic infrastructure, the for-profit business model is broken, the market can’t be trusted to protect this public good and how philanthropy, combined with community support, is the way forward for our industry. (You can also talk to me about other things, but I’ll eventually steer the conversation to this topic. Sorry in advance.)

We talk a lot in our country about the “local news crisis,” or the hollowing out of our industry over the past 20-or-so-odd years. Rebuild Local News, one of the many groups working to stabilize and grow the news business, reports that, since 2005, 3,500 American newspapers have closed. It’s a sobering statistic, for sure, but it doesn’t mean it’s time to put away our reporters’ notebooks and give up the fight.

Something that doesn’t get nearly as much chatter is how the business has been reinventing itself — with cheaper reporters’ notebooks, maybe, and some duct tape and a few prayers. The nonprofit model has spun up some truly awesome newsrooms across the country, and The Melody is just one example. We’re evidence of what can happen when philanthropy sparks something wonderful and the community rallies around it. Of course, we have a lot of work to do, but we’re not even 2 years old yet. We’re still spring chickens.

Anyway, if local news is your jam, too, you’ll love this cool event that’s just around the corner. On April 9, newsrooms across the U.S. will celebrate Local News Day, which is designed to connect people to trusted news sources. That day at The Melody, we’ll be hosting a Facebook Live — a time for you to join and ask us questions about our work or chat with us about topics you think we should cover. Here are more details, and we’re hoping you’ll pop in and at least say hi.

We might even send you a sticker.