Welcome to the Local Fix. Each week we look at key debates in journalism sustainability and community engagement through the lens of local news.  

Every day in communities large and small local journalists are telling important stories, holding local leaders accountable, sharing information that makes their communities a little more connected, a little more whole. At the same time, many of these journalists are trying to navigate a changing media landscape, looking for ways to bring the public more deeply into their reporting, and imagining new ways to pay the bills. 

We are grateful for those journalists. We are thankful for you. Journalism – like democracy – is a work in progress and there is plenty of work to do. We’re glad to be working together with all of you. 

Here is an idea:

We’d love to hear from you about one story from the past year that you are grateful for. A podcast, a video, an article – the format doesn’t matter. Send us a link to one piece that stuck with you and share a few sentences about why you are thankful for it.

Just hit reply. Together we’ll create an end of year reading list powered by gratitude. 

Thanks for all you do. We’ll be back with the full newsletter next week – and we’ll share all the great links you send. 

Molly and Josh

The Local Fix is a project of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation’s Local News Lab, a website where we are exploring creative experiments in journalism sustainability.