Wichita’s local news ecosystem welcomed national attention last week, when Press Forward joined The Wichita Foundation to showcase newsrooms that are on the front lines of building a more robust information ecosystem for the future of our communities.

We’re thrilled to be a part of one of the very first chapters of Press Forward — a major national initiative where national funders have united to expand resources for rebuilding a thriving local news ecosystem. It was a pleasure to present how The Beacon has been a key leader in this alongside our vibrant local news peers and partners including The Kansas Leadership Center Center, The Community Voice, Planeta Venus, and KMUW 89.1. 

Wichita deserves local, reliable news that reflects the diverse issues facing our city. I know that by coming together, with your support, we’re strong enough to fuel informed and engaged communities where all perspectives receive the attention they deserve. We capped off this significant week with a celebration to mark Press Forward’s arrival in Wichita and help welcome our new editor, Maria Carter, to The Beacon Wichita! We’re also hiring for two additional reporters to join our ICT team this summer and welcoming a new local government reporter later this month. There’s never been a better time to let us know what issues you’d like to see The Beacon shine a light on.

The case for local news

Last year, a small, local nonprofit shared with us that 42 homeless people died on the streets of Wichita. The number was nearly the same as the year before but had apparently doubled from the year before that. 

That caught the beacon’s attention and we started looking into this count that had been done by a volunteer. 

What The Beacon uncovered next was NOT the story our reporters had expected to tell. It turned out we couldn’t verify the data—neither the city of Wichita or Sedgwick County was tracking it.  They each thought the other was responsible. 

And that ended up being the story The Beacon told.  I’m pleased to report that, as a result of our coverage, homeless deaths in Wichita are now being officially recorded. 

This case shows why journalism that connects the critical dots between us—is so vital. 

As the CEO of The Beacon, and like many of you, I’ve watched from the sidelines as the local reporting landscape has dissolved. 

I’ve spent the last 15 years living in Kansas working for nonprofits. I’ve tackled challenges in public education, helping startups build new tech and bringing more revenue to the arts. 

In every role, I had the same challenge: it’s harder and harder to connect people to the problems local leaders are trying to solve every day. 

People are getting more and more disengaged from local.

I believe informed and engaged communities are vital and that’s why I’m here today at the helm of The Beacon. I’ve gotten off the sidelines and into the trenches – and with my team, we’re building the solution I always wanted, but never had.

Providing enough news and information to ensure that people can get involved and govern themselves is a monumental challenge.

Where do you start? Let’s tackle that.

Imagine you’re at home juggling, you’re cooking dinner, and you’re messing with a clogged sink. Suddenly, you smell smoke. The old original electrical wiring, hidden behind your walls, has been deteriorating, and now it’s sparking a fire that could destroy your entire home.

What do you do?

This is exactly the situation we’re facing with local news and information.

From our newsrooms, we can smell the smoke. We can see the fire. It’s the severe lack of reporters, the important stories that go untold for lack of resources and the public meetings still taking place behind closed doors.

Our first step is we need to increase reporting capacity. Putting experienced journalists into the community who can build trust and create more credible news.

So that’s where we began.

In 2020, The Beacon launched its first newsroom in Kansas City. At the same time, leaders in Wichita were facing a similar challenge:

How do we keep local news alive and get it in front of as many people as possible?

We launched The Beacon in Wichita in 2021 And we began covering the Kansas and Missouri state legislatures in 2022.

Our recipe for informing and engaging is working:

• Ingredient number one is getting people to our websites. That’s been a major focus for us and we’ve been on a growth spurt– In February, we set a new website traffic record. In March, we broke that record, and by mid-April, we beat it again
• Ingredient number two of that recipe is to build a news habit with our readers. The Beacon’s newsletters reach more than 21K subscribers, about a third of those are in Wichita.
• Ingredient number three is the most important. It’s strong partnerships with other publishers who can help us get our news out to more people than we could alone.

As a result, people across Kansas –and publishers too! – are growing to rely on us for news on local government, education, labor, housing, and health.

Last year, our articles were shared 668 times by 109 outlets. And because of this, the average potential reach of a republished Wichita Beacon story is 3.8 million.

Our impact is also growing in depth. When we stick with a topic over time, it makes a difference.

Take for instance, our reporting on Wichita’s school board election process. Community members demanding change at the school board meetings quoted directly from the 8 articles we wrote on the topic.

The result?    

The following election saw a 20% increase in voter turnout.

Voters chose to change the system to help ensure the 70% of non-white students in Wichita Public Schools can see themselves reflected in the faces of their board members.

So, what’s next for The Beacon?

Most people read The Beacon on their phones. So we’re optimizing for that and launching a brand new website later this month. You might say we’re updating our electrical wiring! 

We’re also kicking off a fundraising campaign to secure The Beacon’s future. You can get a head start by supporting The Beacon Journalism Fund with a gift of any amount to our nonprofit newsroom. 

We want to figure out a model here in the heartland that can show what’s possible nationwide. I firmly believe that the future of news and information will be led by independent outlets like The Beacon— that put everyday people first, work collaboratively with the local news ecosystem and help make sure local news and information is free and available to everyone.