Series

The methods that worked for Boyle Heights Beat may not work the exact same way in every neighborhood, but we know that trust begins with community listening and authentic engagement, and that’s true everywhere. We are building a framework that relies on partnerships, mentorship and genuine care.

Today, we’re undergoing a bold transformation — reimagining ourselves as a platform that fosters generational solidarity and serves bicultural audiences from Gen Z to Boomers.

Generational tension has always existed, of course, but today it is amplified by several factors, both in our communities and our newsrooms. We asked five summit participants to share more about the ways they are engaging and serving multigenerational audiences.

The event was joyous, eclectic and completely unlike what you might expect from a journalism organization. But according to the team that produced it, this is what local media can and should look like.

Although our foundation supports multiple newsrooms, it is easy to envision a single local newsroom that offers subscriptions or paid memberships executing a similar partnership with one or more local history groups.

Our acute understanding of readers’ affinity for their neighborhoods inspired our most successful promotional campaign, now an annual tradition that typically drives up to a quarter of our annual subscription revenue per year.

Local media’s deep-rooted connection to the identities of the communities it serves offers a unique advantage in capitalizing on this widespread interest in history.

Leaning into local identity and history can move our journalism from ‘we provide facts alone’ to ‘we provide facts and serve other important community functions.’

After breaking bread together a few times, “the media” grew a face and some humanity, and “the community” became more complex and interesting. Real relationships started to emerge.

Resident participants must have a way to inform and impact reporting practices — material proof of impact — not just offer story ideas.