What If We've Been Trying to Save the Wrong Thing?

I think I started a newsroom because I was lonely.

When I launched La Verne Daily News, I thought I was filling a gap in local news. Looking back, I realize I was searching for something much more personal: community. That realization has changed how I think about journalism, belonging and the role a newsroom can play in bringing neighbors together.

About a month ago, I had a realization that caught me completely off guard.

I don’t think I started La Verne Daily News because I wanted to build a newsroom.

I think I started it because I was lonely.

A year ago, my family moved from La Conner, Washington, back to La Verne. We had lived here before, and I knew the area, but life had moved on. Five years is a long time. The connections I once had had faded, and suddenly I found myself in a city where I didn’t really know anyone.

Leaving La Conner was harder than I expected.

Over the months, I’d become woven into the fabric of that community. I knew the mayor, the sheriff, the fire chief, the librarians, the baristas and the owners of my favorite sandwich shop. I knew artists, teachers, farmers and small-business owners. I even knew where some of them lived because I delivered their weekly newspaper.

They weren’t just sources.

They weren’t just subscribers.

They were my community.

When we packed up and moved, I lost all of that.

I didn’t just lose familiar faces. I lost the conversations that happened naturally over coffee. The people who waved when I drove through town. The sense of knowing what was happening and who was making it happen. I felt disconnected—not just from people, but from the place itself.

I tried to stay connected. I flew back to Washington several times after we moved, convincing myself I could somehow continue the work I’d started there.

Eventually, I had to admit something difficult.

I don’t think you can do community journalism—at least not the way I want to do it—if you aren’t truly part of the community.

Then one afternoon, I went looking for local news in La Verne.

There wasn’t much to find.

There was no newsroom consistently covering City Hall, highlighting local businesses, celebrating community traditions, or helping neighbors understand what was happening in the city they called home.

That’s when something clicked. I’m not one to sit around and wait for things to happen.

If no one else was going to cover the community, maybe I could.

So I started La Verne Daily News.

At first, I thought I was filling a gap in local journalism.

Now I think I was filling a gap in my own life.

Over the nine months, something unexpected happened.

I got to know people.

The fire chief. The mayor. Members of City Council. The president of the historical society. The university archivist. Librarians. Baristas. Restaurant owners. Realtors. Firefighters. Police officers. Volunteers. Nonprofit leaders. Parents. Students. Neighbors.

Not because I was trying to build an impressive contact list.

Because every conversation led to another conversation.

Every story introduced me to someone I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise.

Looking back, I realize journalism became my way of finding community.

That realization has been sitting with me ever since.

Because it makes me wonder whether we’ve been asking the wrong question about local news.

I’m certainly not the first person exploring this idea.

Organizations like Cityside, the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education and the George W. Bush Institute are all asking important questions about the future of local journalism and its role in strengthening communities. Reading their work has been encouraging because it reminds me I’m joining a growing conversation—not starting one.

What I hope to contribute is simply one practitioner’s perspective: what happens when you try to build community through journalism in a town of about 30,000 people.

And here’s the question I can’t shake.

For years, we’ve been asking how to save local journalism.

It’s an important question.

But for many of us, journalism isn’t actually what we’re trying to save.

We’re trying to save the relationships, trust and shared sense of belonging that make a place feel like home.

How am I helping connect people in our community? It’s something I think about every time I walk into a city council meeting, stop by a local coffee shop or sit down with someone to hear their story.

See how I’m exploring this question in my work at lavernedaily.org.

Thanks for reading!

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