Support, protect &
expand local journalism

The mission of the Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund is to support, protect, and expand local journalism in and for Lancaster County by promoting investigative and public interest journalism and media literacy. These efforts will ensure the people of Lancaster County continue to be informed, engaged, and empowered by independent local journalism.

The Value of Local Journalism

According to the 2022 Report on the State of Local News, from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, an average of two newspapers per week have closed in recent years. This diminishment of access to reliable, timely local news disproportionally affects disadvantaged communities. This leaves low-income citizens without access to information about local decisions that affect them, including housing policy, policing, school board decisions, taxation, and governance.

Lancaster County is fortunate to continue to have strong independent local news reporting through LNP | LancasterOnline. For over 228 years, LNP | LancasterOnline has published a daily newspaper with ground-breaking investigative journalism, an increasingly rare commodity in this era. Other local news organizations, such as WITF and ABC27, also cover news in the region. This local news infrastructure is critical to supporting the high quality of life that residents of Lancaster County enjoy.

The Lancaster County Local Journalism Fund is dedicated to ensuring that our local news infrastructure is healthy for years to come. When you donate to the Fund you are supporting local news reporters who shine a light on topics that matter for everyone in Lancaster County.  

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As seen in Balance Magazine –

Local Journalism is under assault

WITF reporter Brett Sholtis spent the last year and a half shining a light on people with mental health issues and how their encounters with police and the judicial system often result in incarceration rather than necessary treatment. That reporting included the story of a young woman with severe mental illness whose condition deteriorated as she sat in a Bucks County jail. As a result of the story, she was transferred to a state hospital… ( continued )

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“The need to support local journalism is greater now than ever before…Local Journalism is under assault.”

–Stephen Medvic, Kunkel Professor of Government and Director of the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College   

“When that [strong, independent local journalism] is present, civic participation increases, accountability of public officials and elected officials increases, and those are the kinds of things that are part of healthy communities.”

–Scott Blanchard, Senior Editor, WITF News & StateImpact Pennsylvania

“There are counties all over the United States that don’t have local journalists dedicated to serving that community, and that’s just tragic.”

–Robert Bee, Vice President & General Manager, WHTM-TV ABC27

“Local journalists, on a day-to-day basis, help their local residents traverse the very complex waters of contracts and government, and that is a benefit,”

–Robert Bee, Vice President & General Manager, WHTM-TV ABC27

“You have the big guys, the networks, the CNNs, but local journalism is what builds that local community,”

–Enelly Betancourt, Editor, La Voz Lancaster & Staff Writer, LNP|LancasterOnline

Featured in Report for America –

Case Study of Community News Funds

Local foundations lead the way with a pivotal new strategy for community journalism.

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