Dear readers:

At the root of the My Neighborhood News Network is My Edmonds News, which will celebrate its 15th anniversary in October. (Save the date for Saturday, Oct. 19 at Edmonds’ Cascadia Art Museum, with more details to come.) Today is the second in a series of articles on how our publications were founded, how reader engagement remains at the core of our mission and what the future holds. You can read part 1 here.

Last week, I talked about launching My Edmonds News in 2009, and how that led me to acquire two neighboring digital publications — MLTnews and Lynnwood Today — from their founders. Through these three publications, our coverage area has expanded to include about 200,000 people in Southwest Snohomish County.

Two wonderful initial editors — Doug Petrowski in Mountlake Terrace and David Pan in Lynnwood — stepped forward to cover those cities. Eventually, Doug realized that balancing both his full-time day job and a busy part-time news editor job wasn’t sustainable. I was lucky that David was willing to expand his work to cover both areas. And fortunately, Doug eventually returned as a freelance writer — mostly covering high school sports, which he still does today.

After David left for another newspaper job, I was thrilled to find a wonderful replacement in Natalie Covate, a news writer and producer for KIRO 7 — who covered both Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace for three years. After Natalie came talented Lynnwood contract reporters Cody Sexton, Lauren Reichenbach and Jasmine Contreras-Lewis. In Mountlake Terrace, we hired Nathan Blackwell, our first contractor to focus mostly on Mountlake Terrace. He was followed by current MLT contract reporter Rick Sinnett.

In addition to the names above, we have longtime freelancer writers and photographers who continue to report on a variety of topics in our coverage area. Probably the best known of them all is Larry Vogel, an Edmonds resident who has been writing and taking photos about a range of subjects — from politics to the courts to public safety to the environment to business — for more than a decade. Another veteran writer/photographer is Mountlake Terrace-based David Carlos, who has a knack for clever puns and finding “slice-of-life” stories wherever he goes. Over the years, we have been blessed with the talents of columnists who have covered the arts, gardening, the local music scene, food and restaurants, the environment, veterans, families, travel and many other topics. Not to mention the amazing photographers — both freelance and volunteer — who have an eye for everything from sunsets to rainbows to bubble-makers to backyard birds. And let’s not forget our high school sports photographers who capture the special moments of our student athletes.

Last year, when we launched our nonprofit newsroom, we had zero employees. As I write this, we have three (one of them part time). Next month we will add a new person to our organization — a journalism fellow who joins 15 others selected as part of a state-funded program through Washington State University. That will be our first full-time reporter — ever.

Reflecting on those years working to ensure we had staffing to provide solid coverage in an area of 200,000 people leads me to a couple of topics that I continue to think — and worry — about.

The first is the precarious state of journalism. Thousands of news organizations have shut down in recent years, including several local weekly newspapers that used to cover South Snohomish County. In late 2022, the League of Women Voters of Washington released a study, “The Decline of Local News and Its Impact on Democracy.” You can read the complete report here but one of the stunning findings is this: Between 2005 and 2020, more than one fourth of U.S. newspapers – 2,100 in all – disappeared. Half the journalism jobs nationally went away. (More recently, and closer to home, after being acquired by Carpenter Media Group, the Everett Herald in June announced it was laying off half its editorial staff.)

The League of Women voters report also noted that those nationwide newspaper closures left residents of 1,800 communities in news deserts, meaning they had no local newspaper. Why does this matter? National research shows the loss of newspapers over the past 20 years has caused serious impacts: Fewer people running for office and fewer people voting, less community engagement, increased political partisanship, and negative outcomes in public health and public finance, among other concerns. 

I mentioned in my last column that I decided to acquire both MLTnews and Lynnwood Today to ensure both communities had a news source. But financially, it was a struggle. I worked other jobs so I could pay freelancers, tech support and related expenses. I was fortunate to find talented editors, writers and photographers who were willing to work as contractors (I couldn’t afford full-time staff).

Ensuring a more sustainable funding base was a major factor in my decision to move the organization to nonprofit status last year. It changes the focus of the My Neighborhood News Network from a one-person news operation, supported by a team of freelance and contract help, to an organization that is essentially owned by the community it serves. It opens the door to additional sources of financial support while still allowing us to accept advertising from our valued sponsors – many of whom have been with us for many years. 

Since its founding, journalism has mostly operated as a commercial business, supported by advertising. The industry took a huge hit when companies like Facebook/Meta and Google entered the advertising business, and it has never recovered. That’s why an increasing number of people are warming to the idea that journalism should be viewed as a public service and a civic asset that serves our community. And it was my reason for pursuing the path to nonprofit journalism.

I’m not saying that the nonprofit model alone will save journalism, but I believe it is a good option for many.

The second issue that worries me is related to the first. Journalism is losing its farm team. And by that, I’m referring to the places where young people are introduced to journalism as a career, and where they are mentored along the way to grow their skills and become better journalists. Many journalists of my generation worked for their high school newspaper, and were often inspired by a high school journalism teacher to pursue the profession. Many high schools in the U.S. no longer have a newspaper. In the Edmonds School District, only Mountlake Terrace High School has a journalism program that is part of the school’s curriculum — mostly due to the passion of longtime journalism teacher Vince DeMiero, who also advises the Hawkeye student newspaper.

But when newspapers are shrinking or dying — or when the starting salary for an entry-level college journalism graduate is below minimum wage — how can you tell students it’s a viable career path? Of those former reporters and editors of ours, approximately half of them are no longer working in journalism. And I get it — they found alternative career paths that are more stable, better paying and less stressful.

So how does all that fit into the past, present and future of the My Neighborhood News Network? For starters, all of us on the MNNN board of directors are committed to figuring out the financial sustainability piece. We are working to expand our base of financial support through our nonprofit status and have invited the community — individuals, corporations and organizations — to invest in our work. 

If you are reading this, and you haven’t donated, we need your help. We have approximately 500 active donors — thanks to each and every one of you! — who are supporting community journalism with monthly or annual donations — starting at $5 a month or a one-time donation of whatever you can afford. Our mission is to expand those donations so that we can hire more staff, both to shore up our administrative operations and to better cover our communities.

Please consider making a financial gift that will make a real difference, right here in your own community. You can learn more about your donation options here. Consider giving through your workplace or donor-advised fund. As a charitable donation, it is 100% tax deductible. Our federal tax ID # is 88-3919841.

Thank you for all you do to support community news in South Snohomish County. And look for more details about our 15-year celebration, coming soon.

— By Teresa Wippel
Founder, President and CEO
My Neighborhood News Network