Publisher’s Desk

Hello, readers. You may have noticed changes taking place at the Monitor during the past few weeks. The most obvious change is that we’ve boosted our output of news. Rather than focusing exclusively on deeper investigative stories, we are now reporting on everyday stories as well. We decided to do this because we noticed how much news was passing by unreported by the media.

The strategy has paid off. Since embarking on our new path, we have published 14 articles. Eleven of those stories have yet to appear elsewhere.

If you didn’t regularly read the Monitor, you might not know that St. Louis County is facing a serious challenge to its budget. You might also be unaware that the city of Duluth is considering an Ojibwe co-name for Lincoln Park. You  certainly wouldn’t know that the Rock Ridge School Board censored 61 percent of citizens who wished to address them. These stories—and many others like them—have not been picked up by the conventional media.

Duluth needs more reporters. The lack can be seen by attending virtually any public meeting at City Hall. Unless you’re at a City Council or Planning Commission meeting, chances are good there will be no journalists present. The reporting corps in Duluth has been hollowing out for the past two decades. Fewer and fewer people are covering the news every day.

Thus, more and more, public city business slips by without oversight. Politicians spend hundreds of millions of public dollars without a word being reported, and newsworthy events pass unremarked, all due to the journalist shortage.

The solution is obvious: We need more reporters to cover more meetings. For the past month, the Monitor has been demonstrating how this might look. Just think—if one reporter can produce original news articles 11 out of 14 times in a month, imagine what we could do with three reporters. Or five. Or ten. We would become the region’s dominant news source.

Which means we’re looking for reporters. If you know of anyone who is interested in doing freelance reporting for the Monitor, let them know that we might have work for them. Formal journalistic training is not required; a willingness to learn is. If you know how to press Record on an audio recorder, there’s a chance we can use you for something. If you’re an experienced reporter, all the better. Give us a call and we can discuss terms. This is a great time to get involved, as we expand.

We’re also looking for an office. It doesn’t have to be a massive space, but we would prefer it to be in an unsecured building, so people can just walk in the door. We’d hate to lose out on a hot tip because somebody was too timid to press the buzzer. If you know of a suitable space, let us know.

Finally, if you haven’t already done so, please consider signing up for our email list, so you can receive newsletters, alerts about upcoming stories, and other beneficial bonuses to enrich your life in a myriad of ways.

Thank you for listening. Big things are on the way.

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Cover illustration courtesy Walter Ramos.