Inside LINK is a regular column normally written by our CEO, Lacy Starling. This week, we have a special guest writer: LINK’s managing editor, Meghan Goth.
Two years ago, LINK COO Mark Collier reached out to me on LinkedIn. I knew of him vaguely, and I was a little burnt out at my job managing a TV station, so I agreed to meet him.
We went to Carabello in Newport. I don’t think I’ve ever been so on the same page about what I wanted to create with someone I had just met.
We talked about wanting to tell stories at the community level.
We talked about not reporting only for a specific medium — like TV or print — but telling stories wherever people were.
We talked about what’s wrong with news today, and how we wanted to fix it.
I came away inspired, but I figured, LINK can’t afford me.
Turns out, I was right.
But I took the job anyway.
Because this work matters. And I knew that with our CEO Lacy Starling and Mark, we could actually figure out this local news thing.
Since then, we’ve told more than 8,500 stories. We’ve become embedded in communities that hadn’t had proper news coverage in years.
We’ve written stories that caused the nonprofit community to rally around a group of residents being evicted from their homes.
We’ve changed laws.
We’ve uncovered alleged wrongdoings at a local pain clinic that led prosecutors to launch an investigation.
We’ve helped Northern Kentucky understand why taxes are going up and what they can do to make their voices heard.
We’ve gone to countless meetings so that we can help our community know what’s going on and how it will affect them.
Yes, we’ve made some people mad.
Yes, we’ve had to help some people understand what real news is, because it’s been absent here for a while.
But we have been here, day in and day out, telling the stories that help advance Northern Kentucky, find solutions to its biggest obstacles, and bring a voice to the voiceless.
And it’s all because of you.
Without you, none of this would be possible. Yes, we like getting paid. It certainly helps. But we could get paid doing lots of things.
What we do matters to us, and we know it matters to everyone in our community.
And your support is what allows us to do it.
Thank you for everything you’ve done to bring news back to Northern Kentucky.
If you’d like to support the work Meghan and her team are doing in the community, please consider a tax-deductible donation to the NKY Community Journalism Fund. All donations will be doubled, thanks to a generous $75,000 Challenge Grant.
