Hello from NC Local!
It’s finally springtime here at my house in Wilmington, judging by the familiar yellow dust on my car this morning and the carpenter bees buzzing outside. These past winter months were a little too cold for my liking, but they’ve kept our team busy rolling out new products and reporting. I'm excited to share some of those updates with you today.
We recently launched our first regional newsletter, The Trailhead, led by senior reporter Lilly Knoepp, who is based in Western North Carolina. Lilly spends a lot of time out in the community listening to residents and helping explain decisions made in Raleigh in ways that matter back home.
We also launched The Alamance Fabric, born from community listening and supported by our funding partner Impact Alamance. Led by Laura Brache, The Alamance Fabric provides local news that fosters a sense of place in Alamance County. It's a newsletter, but also much more than that. Laura is hosting community meetups and conversations that connect residents and help people better
understand the diverse and growing county they call home.
You may also spot our reporting in publications across the state. NC Local has a growing partnership network that includes newsrooms both large and small, and we make our reporting available for other news organizations to republish at no cost. You'll find our work shared by newsrooms like WHQR in Wilmington, The News Reporter in Whiteville, WFAE in Charlotte, Ocracoke Observer in the Outer Banks, Ashevegas Hotsheet and The Citizen Times in Western NC, WUNC and The Assembly in the Triangle, and more.
Looking ahead, we’re planning community meetups around Local News Day, a national day celebrating the importance of local journalism. NC Local is proud to be a founding newsroom partner, and we’re working with other North Carolina newsrooms to host community events across the state on Thursday, April 9. These gatherings will give people an opportunity to meet our team and
other journalists in their communities, learn more about NC Local, and share their thoughts on issues that matter to them. We’ll send details about locations and how to join us soon.
We’re so grateful to those already supporting our work. Whether you follow our statewide reporting or our regional newsletters, your donations and feedback show us that this work is valuable. Become an early supporter of NC Local by donating here: nclocal.org/donate, and by following us here: Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.
As we head into spring, we’re preparing to launch a new newsletter focused on issues shaping North Carolina. We’re also hiring another reporter thanks to our partnership with Report for America, and we’re planning our next community listening event in Winston-Salem. We’ll share more details about all of these efforts in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, I’m sharing some of our latest reporting on issues shaping our state and communities below.
One last ask before I close: I’d love to hear from you. What questions about issues shaping your community have come up recently? Where should we host our next storytelling event or community listening session? Who should we connect with in your community to share more about NC Local?
Send me a note or simply reply to this email. I look forward to connecting!
With gratitude,
Shannan Bowen
CEO, NC Local
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