April 9th

Hi reader,

This Thursday is Local News Day – a chance to celebrate local news outlets like the Henrico Citizen that are serving their communities all over the U.S. We hope you’ll consider making a donation this week to support the work we do – especially if it’s helped inform you about a particular local issue, taught you something about Henrico County or even just provided a reason to look forward to checking your email each afternoon.

By design, we’ve never charged for any of our coverage – anyone can read it for free. But local journalism doesn’t just sustain itself – it requires readers who believe in it enough to say “I care, and this matters.”

Why this matters

Your support matters now more than ever, during a time when numerous amateur attempts at local news are popping up. In fact, just last week, the Citizen made national news after an AI-powered organization plagiarized a number of our original stories and attempted to pass them off as its own, using a journalist based in Guatemala. Unfortunately, it’s not the first time this has happened to us and likely won’t be the last.

The proliferation of AI means that more and more companies will be seeking ways to make a quick buck by spewing out content that may or may not be real, accurate or original.

You can take your chances with that slop, or you can support an organization like the Citizen that employs real human reporters who actually attend meetings in person, research the topics they cover, talk with members of our community, provide meaningful perspective to help you understand critical topics and take great care to ensure that what we publish is fair and accurate.

The choice is yours.

We're an example of what works

Last fall, the Citizen was honored to be named one of 12 ‘Local News Bright Spots' in the United States by the Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. It was a humbling recognition for our staff but more importantly, it was confirmation that we’re doing something right – in a way that stands out nationally.

Other news organizations in the U.S. now are looking to us as an example of what local news ought to be. We’re proud of that, but more proud of what it means: that we are able to serve our Henrico community in a way that informs it and matters to it. That’s what local news ought to be all about.

Please join us on this journey.

Long live local news!
Tom Lappas, publisher