Our sponsors are our partners—your marketing dollars help us report the news that your employees and customers depend on. As we grow, our reach grows, increasing your return on investment.
Since LkldNow was founded in 2015, our goal has been to provide probing and credible coverage of Lakeland and its institutions with a focus on efforts to build a more livable community. Our mission is to cultivate civic engagement through locally driven journalism, breaking news, and useful community information for the people of Lakeland.
Founded by veteran journalist Barry Friedman, LkldNow is a nonprofit digital newsroom committed to ensuring the future of local news. When you sponsor LkldNow, you reach an engaged audience of people who are invested and active in Lakeland’s community.
Not only do readers want to learn about local issues, they want to know about your business—and we want to help you find the best way to connect with our readers. Your sponsorship helps build our local economy and protect the civic health of Lakeland.
As other local media declines, LkldNow is only growing.
Beliefs and Values
• Journalism’s primary mission is to inform people so that they can become educated voters and participants in civic life.
• News and community information should be easy to access and available when and where the reader is ready for it.
• Civic engagement leads to a better community.
• Taking responsibility for accuracy in gathering, reporting, and interpreting information
• Supporting the open and civil exchange of views
• Treating news sources, subjects, colleagues, and members of the community with respect
• Acting independently and avoiding conflicts of interest
• Being accountable and transparent in our relationship to the community.
The Loss of Local News
Since 2004, the United States has lost a quarter (2,100) of its local newspapers, and with them, half of the country’s newspaper journalists have lost their jobs.
Many of the country’s 6,700 surviving papers have become “ghost newspapers” with greatly diminished newsrooms and readership, creating a crisis for the civic health of American communities.
Digital, nonprofit newsrooms like LkldNow offer a sustainable solution to the growing news desert crisis.
Local News as a Public Good
- Information in news stories informs the citizenry about issues and helps set the agenda for public discourse
- Advertising helps build and promote local economies
- Local news nurtures community cohesiveness and decreases polarization
- Local news inspires civic participation
Our Mission
LkldNow’s mission is to educate community members and cultivate civic engagement, ensuring the livability of Lakeland through locally driven journalism that serves the public interest. We publish original reporting, as well as curating local news and community information in an accessible, user-friendly, digital format.
Our Vision
To be a sustainable model of nonprofit public service journalism that provides open access to local news and community information across digital platforms so that all Lakelanders have the news they need to be informed and engaged.
For a more information or custom packages, please contact Trinity Laurino, trinity @lkldnow.com or call 863.660.2039.