Local reporting through COVID and beyond

by Melanie Jongsma, Publisher

LANSING, Ill. (June 17, 2021) – Back on January 30, 2020, when we published our first story about Coronavirus (as it was being called at that time), we did not realize that would be the start of 18 months of reporting on the topic.

Through it all

Throughout the first COVID cases in Illinois, the early recommendations for staying healthy, the school closures and cancellations of Lansing events — we gathered that information and shared it with you.

When a two-week quarantine was announced in mid-March 2020, and then extended to April 30, and then extended into summer — we kept you informed and updated.

We shared the news about which local restaurants had carry-out, and what new services the library was offering virtually, and how to view Village Board meetings online.

We published photos of the creative ways neighbors connected with each other — signs in windows, chalk drawings on sidewalks, conversations across porches. We showed the lines waiting outside ALDI, and the social distance reminders on the Walmart floor, and the businesses hiring delivery drivers.

We saluted Lansing veterans whose Honor Flights had to be postponed. We celebrated Lansing teachers whose persistence made learning possible even remotely. We smiled with Lansing church members whose humor helped their pastors preach to absent parishioners.

Only the Journal

It’s been an overwhelming, unprecedented, confusing, up-and-down year — and I am glad we have a journal of everything that happened. (See what I did there?)

The Lansing Journal reported things that no one else reported. We shared local news and updates every single day. Someday when you are ready to look back at the specifics of 2020 again, you’ll be glad that the information, photos, and numbers are available.

Without The Lansing Journal, those details would be lost to history.

A milestone worth marking

Now that Illinois has entered Phase 5 of the Restore Illinois plan, I’d like to ask you to mark this milestone by making a special thank-you gift to your community newspaper.

I’m asking because we can’t do this kind of very specific, very local reporting without your help.

We’d love to have you as a monthly supporter — those contributions help us plan each month’s news budget. But if you aren’t able to make that kind of sustained commitment, a one-time gift is helpful too.

Will you use this secure form and make a contribution to local news before the end of the month?

Continued local reporting

We are grateful to be part of a community that understands how important a local newspaper is. Through good times and bad, we want to continue keeping people informed and connected. We need your help to do that.