For our newsroom to accurately and sustainably represent Pittsburgh, making connections is vital. Those connections include interactions with to individuals, leaders and government bodies, but also with businesses, nonprofits and community organizations. That’s where I come in. As business partnerships manager, I plan, initiate, maintain and grow our non-editorial partnerships.
Here’s an example of how those partnerships support and shape our work. This year, we launched a series of neighborhood zines — miniature, limited-run magazines rich with visuals and voices— to tell stories in a new way on a hyperlocal level. I initially pitched the idea after a community engagement opportunity chatting with local creatives at the Pittsburgh Zine Fair.
Once the zines were underway, the team and I spent weeks immersing ourselves in the target neighborhoods, each with our respective purposes and approach. I found truly local advertisers whose support has made the zines a viable ongoing product. I attended a North Side neighborhood walk, visited a homegrown Oakland groceria, built relationships with librarians, park rangers and donut makers in the South Hills to distribute zines to their neighbors. Readers tell us they love seeing their neighborhoods represented through beautiful photography, real quotes from real residents, and thoughtful examination of stories, issues and solutions that are close to home.
Forging more connections in Pittsburgh isn't academic to the people of Public Source; we live here, too, and want to help it thrive. My goal each day is to position our journalism to build an ecosystem of nonprofits, businesses, community groups, friends and neighbors who care about our hometown. Each of our staff, from interns up to editor-in-chief, take the same locally focused approach in their own work.
While I don’t write the stories, I’m deeply proud to support and share them. Historian Timothy Snyder says that we must defend institutions that help preserve decency and democracy — but not to call them “our institutions” unless we take an active hand in supporting them.
So please, support Pittsburgh’s Public Source — support local journalism, and support Pittsburgh — by making a donation. I’m not squeamish about asking because I believe in this work, I’ve seen its impact and I know that it doesn’t happen without help.
A donation right now goes twice as far. Gifts until the end of December are matched, and new monthly donations are matched 12 times.
Thank you for your support.
