With a $100,000 grant from the Lenfest Institute, Daralyse Lyons wants to further expand and deepen the relationships the Chestnut Hill Local has with its readers in Northwest Philadelphia and Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
“There are certain areas around us in which news is not being told, in which communities are not being engaged with in the way in which they deserve to be engaged,” says Lyons, the business growth officer and publisher of the Chestnut Hill Local. “Our readership is maybe not what it could be, particularly in underserved minority communities where there is a trust gap with journalism. I think it’s important for folks to have access to local news where they can verify to feel like their voices are finding a way into the public eye or the public ear, where people can feel like the journalism that is being done is not just about them but also involves them.”
With the help of the grant, which Lyons credits to the hard work of Samantha Ross on the Local’s development association for securing, some steps toward building that trust, name recognition and visibility are already happening.
In addition to hiring a new digital editor shortly after she came on board, Lyons has launched a series of “idea labs” where she can get out in the community each month to let people bring stories to her.
“People can come in and bring me their ideas and chat and get to know me and get to know more about the paper,” Lyons says. “That’s been really interesting. We’ve had people come in and give us story ideas. We’ve had people come in and learn about advertising. Some come in and want to know more about how journalism works.”
The grant application focused on outreach to underserved communities. “I think this grant was really aimed at engaging with readers who are underserved and populations where their stories weren’t being told at the depth at which those communities deserved. The grant is aimed at various strategies for engaging with underserved populations. A lot of the work is making people aware of what we were already doing while engaging new frontiers,” Lyons says.
The Local also prides itself on collaboration with other news organizations, advertisers and the Chestnut Hill Community Association — the paper began as a newsletter within the community. “Years ago, we did separate and we did form our own 501(c)(4). The Chestnut Hill Community Association became a 501(c)(3). We operate independently. The association has zero say on any editorial content or strategies, but we are answerable to their board, we submit financials to them, our offices are in the same building. Every community association member gets a subscription. But they have no editorial oversight of what we do.”
The publication covers a distinct region of Pennsylvania that started in Chestnut Hill and expanded into Mount Airy and Germantown. “Despite our name, we really are a Northwest-specific paper. When we started 66 years ago, our focus was very narrow. Our focus changed far before I came on board to better serve the needs of northwest residents. We have the weekly paper and we also publish something called Wissahickon, a quarterly magazine, and Explore comes out twice a year, essentially a fun guide of things to do. We have four different print products.”
Lyons is proud that the Local fills about half its weekly publication with local advertisers but is working to establish an advertorial or sponsored content program to help fund the paper. She aims to make sure the advertorial program involves “different, select businesses and organizations that have something meaningful to share with communities can share that information. We’re being really strategic about it. For example, the first advertorial we’re going to launch has to do with financial literacy, which is really important to underserved communities in Chestnut Hill who might not have more resources. It’s something people need to learn about. It’s multifaceted but our work is very collaborative with our editor and our advertising and marketing manager.
Daralyse Lyons, business growth officer at the Chestnut Hill Local, discusses a Lenfest grant of $100,000 to help the paper expand readership and its reader demographic in Philadelphia and nearby Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
