Category: News

Full-time reporters matter Trinity Laurino Executive Director The Washington Post recently reported that National Geographic — that stalwart publication that brought the wonder of the world into so many of our homes – has laid off its last staff writers; they are being replaced by freelance writers.  For those outside the media, the move from […]

Let’s talk Lkld Trinity Laurino Executive Director When we launched the first of our LkldNow community forums, we had a lot of hopes but not a lot of expectations. We hoped to create a space for civil civic engagement, a place where the community could come together to listen, learn and, most important, be listened […]

Get alerted when we post news Barry Friedman Editor at Large Some people want to know about Lakeland news as soon as we publish it. We appreciate those people and have three ways they can get notified instantly when we publish articles: Desktop notifications. These are brand new to us this month. Users can sign […]

Gratitude when returning to Lakeland Barry Friedman Editor at Large My wife and I recently returned from a  a 500-mile journey on foot across northern Spain that’s known as the Camino del Norte. It’s one of the many paths that constitute the Camino de Santiago, a series of ancient pilgrimage routes that attract seekers from […]

Our readers are the best Cindy Glover Editor We know LkldNow readers are a special group – thoughtful, civic-minded, invested in Lakeland’s quality of life and looking for facts rather than opinion. But several things happened this week that drove home just how fantastic our readers are. First, your generosity. We asked if you could […]

ChatGPT did not write this column Barry Friedman Founder & Editor-at-Large There’s been a lot of chatter in journalism circles lately about how news organizations should and shouldn’t use ChatGPT, the online artificial intelligence “chatbot” that has gotten a lot of attention since being released to the public last November. If you’re not familiar with […]

Courage to have difficult conversations Trinity Laurino Executive Director Next Tuesday, May 9 at 6:30 p.m. is our third community forum in a series we’re now calling “Let’s Talk Lkld.” This time we’re exploring the issue of race and equity locally.  Judging by the fact that we’re already at about 90% capacity for the venue […]

What is watered grows Cindy Glover Editor The return of rain after one of the driest January-February-March periods in Polk County history has transformed the sad patch of dirt in front of my house. It shouldn’t be a revelation since – like most of my neighbors – I don’t have a sprinkler system. When we […]

Happenings near and far Cindy Glover Editor There’s a word for the kind of journalism we do at LkldNow: hyperlocal.  Generally speaking, it’s the opposite of “big media” with centralized operations. We are small media with a grassroots operation. Our focus is entirely on Lakeland. One of my most important tasks as editor is deciding […]