The role of emerging nonprofit local newsrooms will be the focus of a November 14 Youngstown Press Club luncheon. The event will begin at noon at the main branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County, 305 Wick Ave. The featured speaker will be Loretta Chao, head of startup studio and local news innovation at the American Journalism Project, whose topic will be: “Empowering communities through local news.” The mission of the American Journalism Project is to support local journalism, which it says is the key to an informed citizenry and a healthy democracy. The AJP makes grants to nonprofit news organizations, partners with communities to launch new organizations and coaches leaders as they grow and sustain their newsrooms.
Appearing with Chao will be representatives of Signal Ohio, a three-year-old network of independent, community-led, nonprofit newsrooms, which is funded in part by the AJP. Lila Mills, editor-in-chief of Signal Cleveland, and Mary Ellen Huesken, a copy editor for Signal Ohio newsrooms, will discuss how their organization is changing the local media landscape.
Chao got her start in journalism at Newsday and the New York Daily News before covering tech and business for The Wall Street Journal. She has also been a correspondent in Brazil and China, where she won awards for reporting on Internet censorship and surveillance. Most recently, she was director of strategy and operations at VICE Media, where she oversaw editorial strategy for its first direct-to-consumer subscription product and worked on programming and execution of its first major live-streaming news production.
Registration information is at youngstownpressclub.com. Pre-registration is required. The reservation deadline is November 10. The cost is $30 for Youngstown Press Club members; $35 for non-members. The program is sponsored by the Edward M. Barr Foundation and the library. A portion of event proceeds will go to the club’s college scholarship fund. The club was re-established in 2018 to promote journalism and related professions in the Mahoning Valley.
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