RobyLane Kelley
Editorial Assistant

  If you’ve read my bio you’ll know two things about me, which are important to start off this piece. First, I worked in broadcast television for a year as a producer before leaving to pursue reporting. Second, I’m a college student entering my final semester at the University of Missouri — Kansas City (UMKC). This prior information tells you that I have worked in for-profit media before the Northeast News and that I’m broke as a joke.

  Before I came to Northeast News, I felt the media I was producing was accessible. I may not have cable in my own apartment, but I have (somewhat) reliable internet, so I could watch live streams or clips from broadcasts on my phone or even read the articles on my laptop.

  It was when I left corporate news that I realized I only followed political journalism at work and any good journalist will tell you that all journalism has a bias — no matter how hard we try to stay in the middle. 

  Since we don’t cover much political journalism at Northeast News, it was now up to me to find journalism that I deemed reliable and unbiased. Being raised in a household where my mom is famed for “seeing both sides” to any dispute, no matter how miniscule, I figured I’d pride myself on taking in media from both sides. 

  This, however, was promptly thwarted when most outlets were locked behind a paywall. I am lucky that I have access to the internet to even find these outlets, but the Wall Street Journal seriously has a 250 word article behind a monthly subscription equal to the price of eggs. For reference, up until this sentence has been just over 260 words. 

   As a college student with one human and one dog with human-like intelligence — and the pickiness of any toddler to feed — I can’t afford any paywall, even at “only” a dollar per month.

 So where do we go for free reliable media? Non-profit papers are a great place to start, and the staff at Northeast News has a genuine care for those around them. I’m not just saying that because I was invited to stay either. 

  When I started, Michael Bushnell cared and I mean he CARED about this wannabe reporter. I felt like I’d never be able to report because of my service dog and he told me he’d make sure, personally, that I had the same access as any other reporter in the city. My new boss, Julia Williams, wants to start monthly spreads about issues like affordable housing and access to water in the print edition. These are not actions of people, of public servants, who are just coming for a paycheck and clocking out.

  But how do we keep it free to access? How do we keep producing a weekly paper when, in journalism on a national level, paper editions are few and far between? I have a few opinions on this matter that I thought I could shed some light on with my knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes.

  First of all, it’s never “free.” We depend on advertisements, so we can continue to print and build our papers. We depend on sponsorships, but so does corporate media. I can tell you from experience that corporate media works with similar functions. 

  The difference being Northeast News, like many physical papers, offers media and information to the public — no if, ands or buts about it. It isn’t free IF you pay for a copy of the paper. It isn’t free IF you first need cable or the internet.

  This paper is working hard. We are trying to provide a service to this community we have all grown to love. As a reporter who would like to stay serving this community, I ask that we come together to help each other. Keep this media-free. I will send Georgia (my service dog) to collect from advertisers, if I must. 

  So my final question and opinion: what can we do as a media outlet to better provide for the Northeast? My opinion is we need some help. Tell us what you want us to cover and we’ll work at it. I can’t guarantee that everything will be the result you’re looking for, but it’ll be a source. Take the affordable housing spread Julia and I did together. As a person trying to find an apartment, I absolutely hated that piece — but sometimes the best information to have is the information we want the least.

  I challenge each and every reader to write down something they wish they knew more about. If you like my work, then you can put your suggestion into a box I will provide at the paper. I will do what I can to cover your topic with the utmost journalistic integrity to provide you with free answers. 

 I ask that you write the topic you’d like information on — and if you’d like — to sit down for an interview with me on this topic, along with your contact information. Please note that an interview with me will include Georgia, my (in contrast to Inky) very real, service animal.