Local news is alive and well in the D.C. area.
The layoffs at the Washington Post earlier this month were a major blow to coverage of sports, courts, transportation and other topics for which the Post was one of the few outlets (or only outlet) to have dedicated local beat reporters. But it was not a death blow to local news in the region, despite the proclamations of some prominent commentators.
In fact, a small army of reporters is still on the beat, covering our communities.
There are dozens working for local TV and radio stations, like NBC 4, Fox 5, WTOP and WAMU. In Rosslyn, the Washington Business Journal continues to closely cover the local business community. The Washington Post reportedly still has around a dozen experienced local journalists — far diminished from its heyday, but not nothing. The Washington Times is somehow still putting general local coverage out in print. The Washington City Paper often punches above its weight. There are more recent online local news startups, like The 51st in D.C. and, now, the Baltimore Banner, which is expanding into suburban Maryland and D.C. sports. Seven full-time local news reporters and editors and several freelancers work for ARLnow and our sister sites, ALXnow and FFXnow, and more work for our partner sites PoPville, MoCoShow and Potomac Local. That’s not to mention longtime outlets like the Washington Informer, Afro, Metro Weekly and the Washington Blade.
We could go on, but you get the idea. Reports of the death of local news in the D.C. area are greatly exaggerated.
Then again, if you were to only scroll your favorite social media feed, or open up your phone’s news app, you might start believing that there’s not much local news left. That’s because day-to-day local news doesn’t give them the engagement or, in some cases, prestige they optimize for. Sure, you might encounter some local stories from legitimate outlets, but you’ll encounter a whole lot more national stories and viral slop.
Which brings us to WSHnow, ARLnow’s newest sister site.
We built WSHnow to surface a wide variety of stories from across the D.C. area, highlighting the reporting being done by hard-working local journalists on our sites and those of our competitors. We check 45 outlets several times an hour, and publish direct links to more than 100 stories over the course of a typical day.
The goal is simple: to give locals a place to find quality local news coverage. We hope you bookmark WSHnow, make it part of your daily routine, and discover great local news sources you weren’t already following and never encountered amid the social algos.
Local news isn’t going to save itself — it needs readers who show up. And the best way to support the reporters still on the beat is to actually read, share and subscribe to their work.
