The Toledo Free Press has returned but is now online. Editor in chief Lori King discusses the role the Free Press will play in local media and plans for the future.
Staying in Contact with London Mitchell
Guest: Lori King, Toledo Free Press
Staying in contact. I'm London Mitchell. Each week we take a few minutes to examine an issue in our community and introduce individuals working to address those issues. I admit sometimes we get into the weeds but hopefully you'll leave each installment with some food for thought and maybe the inspiration to roll up your own sleeves and join an effort. My guest today is Laurie King, editor-in-chief of the newly revised Toledo Free Press. Many of you may remember the Toledo Free Press, which ceased publication about 10 years ago but now has returned to life online. Laurie is a former photographer for the blade, a military journalist and podcaster. We are both graduates of the Department of Defense Information School, where we cut our teeth on the real basics of professional journalism. And now Laurie is stepping into the adventure of bringing a new media outlet to Northwest Ohio, the Toledo Free Press. We're 100% online now, ToledoFreePress.com. And we, I think the biggest change is that we're nonprofit. So we are free, 100% free and we're independent, we're non-political, we're nonpartisan. So we just, I think what's going to separate us between the other media in Toledo because we are not a news desert. We have a lot of media in town. I think what's going to separate it is separate us in the end as our explanatory and investigative reporting, covering government and business and education. Of course, we're going to have, you know, arts and culture, a lot of community events. But once we hire staff to be able to do that, and that's our issue right now, is staffing, we're going to be- You're dealing right now basically with freelancers? Yes, about a hundred percent freelancers. And I am doing a probably 90% of the photojournalism. So I'm the photo editor on the webmaster. I've, I built the website with the help of a local web guy. I couldn't do it without him. And I edit and post every single story online. So I'm the copy editor as well. So, you know, one, and, but I do have two part-time staffers. And once Kelly McIlveray, she is the engagement editor. She posts our social media content and puts out our newsletters. And Aaron Holden, who is our assignment editor, and she is the one who deals with the freelancers and dishing out assignments and making sure that their hours are collected for pay and things like that. So, you know, it's a team effort, but I think the biggest ask and I'm going to ask is support, financial support. And that would come in the way of donations? Donations, because because we're not profit, we have a, a diverse funding model. So we're primarily, we really hope to, to get to, to earn our, our funding through small donations. We have a donate button on the website. And you can donate monthly $10 or $25 through Patreon, or you can do a one-time fee through PayPal. So if you go to our website, there's a oval red donate please button. You hit that. And by supporting your local media, it is allowing us to be free for everyone. And that's our goal. Let's go back to, uh, to your comment about what you want to focus on in the way of, of content. You've evidently, or you are evidently seeing a big gap in what, uh, the other media in town, the blade, the TV stations are, are putting forth. Yes. Um, I think one thing that is, I don't want to speak for them. But so I'm just going to speak for us. And one thing that we really, really want to focus on is the why and the how and the what of every story. So we want to dig deeper. So that means we're going to spend a little bit more time on a story and not just showing up an event at an event, taking some pictures, getting some quotes and posting it, you know, to make a deadline of that night. We want to dig a little deeper than that. You know, we're the, we're going to be the little newsroom that could, I hope that that is our goal. I also want to really dig into more multimedia. I want to have, um, a podcast page where we're going to have, um, podcasts and we're going to dig into TikTok. And there's this, uh, program that I really, really am passionate about and it's news, a news literacy speaker's bureau. So because of the climate of the current climate of the media right now with this fake news, um, disinformation on social media, how do you know what's true and what's not true? You can't even, you can't even look at a picture nowadays and know if it's real or not because of AI. I mean, it is a real is a problem. You don't know it. Once you lose your trust in the media, we're in trouble. Our democracy is in trouble. So I want to have this news literacy program where we're going to go into senior citizen centers. We're going to go in the businesses. We're going to go into, um, schools and teach them what news literacy is, what journalism is, why you should trust it and how you can verify information. I'd love for you to count me in on the project. Oh, I'm looking for volunteers to sit on that speaker's bureau. So I will let you know, um, we're going to be, I'm going to start putting it together real soon. Right now I am actively progressively working on our internship program because we do have a commitment to training our local future journalists, um, the next generation. So we will have interns probably year round and we just got a $25,000 grant from the Tittle Community Foundation. Thank you. Community Foundation for that grant that is strictly earmarked for interns. So we're at, so I'm seeking interns now and writing up that program and hopefully we'll be inviting our first two interns in, in the spring. I think that's great. I think that is great. I have long been, been, uh, talking about my own belief that much of the division we have in this country is because we lost the fairness doctrine in broadcasting and the fact that, uh, we are no longer requiring broadcasters to present both sides of an argument, uh, takes away from us, robs us as a, as a population of an ability to really think through things, hear both sides of the story and making, making a value judgment for ourselves. I think we, we did ourselves as a country, a big injustice with that. I get off my soapbox. I wish your listeners can, can see me nod my head in agreement because if, if we don't straighten up our act in this country as far as the partisan media and social media is killing us. And now I fear for the FCC to be dismantled. And that's really, really scares me. I'm London Mitchell. My guest is Laurie King, the editor-in-chief of the Toledo Free Press. This new media outlet from Northwest Ohio is now online at Toledo free press.com. I love the fact that the free press is a nut for profit because I think we've already seen, uh, what I would consider the beginning of the demise of our most aggressive journalism. The Washington Post, for example, Jeff Bezos backing off. I can't help but think that was a financial move on his part, a fear that there could be some real financial ramifications in his other business enterprises. And I worry about how much the New York Times will be able to manage or, or CBS or NBC or ABC if they start taking financial hits with advertising. So, yeah, I mean, the Washington Post's motto is what, you know, democracy dies in darkness. And then they went dark. Yeah. Right. Um, they, what is the first, the first time they haven't, well, they haven't endorsed the presidential candidate. That's what I was looking for. The first time they haven't endorsed the candidate. And you write, I think that was financially motivated. So money is tearing us apart. And that's, that's, I'm really glad you brought up the nonprofit again because that's, you know, the independent news network, INN is thriving because this is the new model of journalism that are independent, small independent news rooms. Being funded by philanthropists. And we are in this match program where from, from now through December 31st, every donation dollar we make is matched by INN. So it is a more important than ever that if we want to succeed and what we're talking about is fair and balanced and ethical and truthful journalism to keep our politicians and our business owners in check. We need financial support to do that. It will be, in my opinion, money well spent. Yes, yes, it will. And it is definitely my goal to make sure that we hire, you know, passionate journalists who want to make a difference. I think even the freelancers you've got now are passionate in their work. I recognize many of the names are very popularly pompa. You know, I can't help but think you're well on the way to, to meeting your goal. Again, the website address, Lori, it is to Toledo free press dot com. And like I said, it's 100% free. And we, we publish every day. And we're able to do one or two stories a day. So once you catch up, it's an easy read. And you can put it, we don't have a app yet. But we will. And another thing that I really love about that's different from, from ours is we have a cartoon page. It's called the humorists and we have three cartoonists and we, and I rotate them out and it's called a daily dose. And every single day we have a new cartoon. From our three cartoonists, Don Lee, Steven Nathanis, who actually was the frontman to the home wreckers. He's an artist now. And my brother, Jerry King. So, so that's kind of fun. So we balance, we balance the serious with, with the funny. Yeah, look at a couple of the cartoons that that are posted today. They get you to thinking, but they're not, but they're not nasty. And that's always been my beef with political cartoons. They tend to be somewhat nasty at times. And I don't necessarily know that as a society, we have to be nasty to get us to think. I don't think nasty works. Well, maybe it does. I don't know. Hey, I see behind you. I know your your listeners can't see it, but I see behind you a minute man. Oh, yeah. I have that same minute man. There you go. It's something I'm kind of proud of 24 almost 24 years. Wow. Between the army and the air guard. Me too. I was army in the air guard, but a minute man, it's it's a big bronze heavy statue of a minute man. And everybody who retires from the Air National Guard gets that minute man. Yeah. You and I both are the proud owners of one. And you are right, Laurie. I am very proud of that minute man statue. Laurie King is the editor in chief of the Toledo Free Press. Find the latest edition at Toledo Free Press.com. I'm London Mitchell, hoping you'll accept this invitation to join us again next week as we continue staying in contact. Previous episodes of staying in contact with London Mitchell are available on Apple podcasts, Amazon podcasts, Podbean, The Suite 419 app and London Mitchell news. (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]