2-minute read
Given the steady stream of articles, newsletters, and social media posts LkldNow produces, I sometimes wonder: Do we give the impression of a much larger newsroom than we are?
In reality, Anna and I are the only full-time staff. We work both lean and long. Some days, we’re up and out before dawn and still editing and working through questions well after dark. Luckily, we are supported by a talented group of freelancers and contributors.
Although small, I’m incredibly proud of what this team does and how they do it. Anna brings the perspective of a former educator, along with an openness to new ideas and a discipline that keeps the work grounded. Josh combines a business background with experience covering religion. Even though we only have him part-time, he’s expanded our reporting in both areas while also taking on the demands of City Hall coverage. Erin Grant, who also edits Florida Southern College’s student newspaper, is one of the most talented young journalists we’ve had the pleasure of working with. She’s shown she can be thrown into the deep end and figure things out. And Fionna, our newest freelancer, is a recent NYU journalism graduate who has returned home. She’s quietly determined, deeply inquisitive, and equally capable of telling a story through writing or video.
The LkldNow team regularly sits through long hours of City Commission meetings and emerges ready to tell you what happened in under three minutes. They’re here for the election coverage that goes late into the night, the new restaurant opening, the local festival, and the everyday events that help us tell the stories of this place we call home. They do it all with curiosity, care, and a genuine commitment to this community.
But there’s a difference between what a small newsroom can accomplish and what a community Lakeland’s size deserves to have. And I think about that difference often.
Did you know Polk County has one of the lowest ratios of journalists to residents in the country? The Local Journalist Index tracks this disparity.
I think about what one more full-time reporter could mean for Lakeland: the additional stories we could chase, the questions we could pursue more deeply, and the issues and areas, including unincorporated Lakeland, that could receive the sustained attention they deserve.
There’s so much more happening in this community that deserves to be understood.
I don’t want to lose sight of what we accomplish day-to-day. But I also don’t want us to confuse what we’ve been able to do with what’s possible.
Someone recently asked me what it would take to make LkldNow sustainable in the long term. The answer is 4% — if just 4% of the people who read LkldNow’s free reporting became donors at $5 to $10 per month, we could grow our newsroom and deliver the robust coverage we believe Lakeland deserves.
That’s what I hope you’ll consider this NewsMatch season. If you’ve come to rely on our reporting, I hope you’ll consider becoming a financial supporter, too.
Thanks to NewsMatch, and a local match donor, your contribution will be matched dollar for dollar. Our goal is $30,000 in community donations to keep this work going. If we can exceed that, it will help us build the newsroom this community deserves.
Imagine what we could accomplish together.
Thank you for reading, for caring about this community, and for making LkldNow possible.
What is NewsMatch?: A Letter from the Executive Director
The nationwide program that aims to prevent the collapse of local news began on Nov. 1
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