About us

The Lansing Journal provides balanced, trustworthy, local news in a way that builds community in Lansing, Illinois, and the surrounding region.

The Lansing community

Lansing is a diverse community of about 28,000 residents, and The Lansing Journal is intentional about sharing news that is important to all of Lansing. We all benefit when Lansing has a newspaper.

Lansing resident Juanita Ceasar reads The Lansing Journal during break on United Flight at O’Hare Airport. (Photo taken by coworker)

Lansing has an active social calendar, an intrepid business community, creative churches, and engaged students. A local newspaper is necessary in order to keep people informed and connected. The Lansing Journal publishes news in all these categories (also available under “News by category” in the green menu bar):

In addition, our “building community” promise means that our reporters are also part of the community, and they value the relationships they are building. We don’t just drop in when something sensational happens — we live here. We care. Throughout interviews or other interactions, we earn trust by being honest, respectful, curious, and professional. Each byline and photo credit is the name of someone who stands behind his or her work and can answer questions about decisions that were made.

Are you a professional journalist looking to make a difference?
The Lansing Journal is hiring. We have a variety of beats available that need more coverage than we are currently providing, particularly Local Government, Business, and Public Safety (formerly Crime). Contact [email protected] or complete the form below.

The business community

For local businesses, churches, schools, and organizations, The Lansing Journal offers targeted advertising opportunities that achieve measurable results. We partner with our advertisers and won’t push a sale unless it will help achieve their goals — within their budget. All our advertising options give organizations effective ways to reach engaged readers who want to shop local.

Building community

While printed newspapers are in decline and have chosen not to cover smaller communities, The Lansing Journal is growing in reach and impact — largely because of our commitment to building community. When we have to choose whether to cover a story or not, we ask if covering it will build community. We do not limit ourselves to “positive” news, and we do not shy away from “negative” news. We simply report facts, provide information, and cultivate a variety of sources to help ensure that we are telling a story that is balanced and accurate. Reliable news from trusted sources builds community.

Community support

If you value this brand of journalism, there are three ways you can help:

  1. SUBSCRIBE to the Daily News email
    We’ll send you one email each morning, with 2–5 headlines we posted overnight. Subscribers are first to receive the news we publish — before Facebook followers, before Twitter followers, and long before a print version is produced and distributed.
  2. SUPPORT local journalism
    Small amounts from many people make a big difference — choose to give monthly or occasionally.
  3. ADVERTISE your business or event
    Our digital ads get measurable results for you, and advertising revenue supports this local newspaper — which also benefits businesses. We send journalists to cover local grand openings, ribbon-cuttings, expansions, and remodels, and that information reminds people to shop local.

We’re committed to making news accessible, so we don’t charge for our services. Support from our community helps cover the cost of reporting, publishing, and delivering local news every day.

What readers have told us

“I quit my subscription to The Times a few months ago,” one Lansing resident told us. “The only reason we subscribed was to not miss death notices, but now we can get this on the internet very easily. The Lansing Journal is doing a great service to the Lansing community!”

“We’re enjoying the paper very much and the writing is excellent. Thank you!”

“I just want to let you know how much I appreciate the quality of the content and of the writing in The Lansing Journal. I believe you are doing a great service for the Lansing community. Thank you!”

A newspaper for all of Lansing

The Lansing Journal is a newspaper for all of Lansing. Not only do we want to cover diverse stories in Lansing, we actually want diverse people to participate with us in providing news, photos, and story ideas. We want a variety of businesses to advertise in our pages and on our website. We are eager to keep learning and exploring new ways of gathering and sharing information, so all Lansing residents can have the newspaper our community deserves.

Want to learn more about that? Read this award-winning editorial:

The Lansing Journal is a different kind of newspaper. We believe we can meet a need and serve our community.

We want to be your newspaper too: