Hello 2022! This year hasn’t started the way many of us intended but for me, I’m working hard to stay ambitious, community-oriented and continue to design my work life to support the rest of my life and help me be my best self. This email update is as much about what I’ve been up to as it is about how much I need community to succeed.
On Dec. 1, I started a new role as editor-in-chief of Charlottesville Tomorrow. It’s a really amazing local news organization that is set up well to challenge what news can do for a community — and who can own it. And wow, is this team ever mission-driven!
Since my first day, I’ve been taking meetings with people who live and work in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia. I’ve lived here over two years and it’s been really amazing to get to know the neighborhood anew through the eyes of so many different kinds of people. My listening tour is now over 50 meetings strong and I’m so glad to constantly fill my head with what people need from news. I also fulfilled a lifelong dream to be on a hip hop radio station — we’ve got a great one that’s nonprofit here in Charlottesville in 101.3 Jamz — to talk about the importance of local news and who makes it.
How you can help #1: If you’re in the Charlottesville area, or are a former resident who still wants to keep up, or care about local news, I want to talk to you too! Here’s where we can find a time. And here’s more about Charlottesville Inclusive Media and our goals.
I’m also thrilled that the nonprofit organization I helped found, Women Do News, is growing! We work to get women and nonbinary journalists recorded in the shared history that is Wikipedia. We’re now a nonprofit, in partnership with the Bay City News Foundation, and have a great lineup of events and edit-a-thons brewing for 2022.
How you can help #2: Sign up for the newsletter on our homepage.
Last but not least, I’m thrilled to join a new initiative to support independent journalists! The game is too often stacked against creators and reporters who work for themselves. But we can advocate for our work and help news organizations create better, more equitable practices. Let’s talk about how! I’ll be on a panel (virtually) at the inaugural Center for Independent Journalists conference on March 12 about pay and negotiations.
How you can help #3: Register the Center for Independent Journalists conference here.