Readers of local news! We want to say thank you. Because of you, and those with whom you shared Lookout Eugene-Springfield, our launch has been hugely successful. 

Our readership is going up every week, and we see from the way-above time you are spending with each visit, you are looking around and familiarizing yourself with Lookout. We’re sharing, below, the further build-out of our newsroom and engagement programs, to give you a sense of what’s coming.

Let us share a couple of numbers. 

First, a big one. Lookout Eugene-Springfield members, there are now almost 1000 of you – just seven weeks after our launch. We deeply appreciate your support and early commitment. It propels us forward individually and as an ambitious news organization.

If you are not yet a member, today is a great day to become one, and join your friends and neighbors. Just choose from one of three options to become a member – and know you will get full access to everything our journalists report and write and that you are doing your part to revive strong local news in Lane County.

BECOME A LOOKOUT MEMBER

And consider this number: 26. That’s the number of Marketing Partners who have seen the value of generating business and awareness with our growing readership. They are all listed here: https://lookouteugene-springfield.com/advertise/. Please visit and thank them for helping us build Lookout for you.

Interested in helping speed us further along?

Becoming a member is key and then there are four more ways you can help:

Our newsroom continues to grow. Meet the newest members

The Lookout Eugene-Springfield newsroom at 771 Willamette St., Eugene, is filling up. Several new members have joined the newsroom during the past few weeks – with a few more still on the way.

Here’s a look at who has joined Lookout recently: 

Lilly St. Angelo is immersed in education and children’s issues; Annie Aguiar is making her way around our vibrant arts and culture community; Lillian Schrock-Clevenger is digging into Springfield; and Michael Zhang has been working on the data visualizations you have started to see in several stories.

And today, we are joined by Jaime Adame, who will cover the justice system in Lane County.

We introduced you to Lilly and Annie earlier, and here’s a little more about some of the newer team members you might not have met:

Michael Zhang, in addition to being a data specialist, will be a general assignment reporter. He recently graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in sociology and was a fellow at University of Texas at Austin’s Media Innovation Lab, where he experimented with AI applications within newsrooms nationwide. 

The Houston native also completed a Dow Jones News Fund data fellowship at Houston Landing.

Lillian Schrock-Clevenger is our Springfield correspondent, covering everything from local government to the business and arts scenes, ensuring Springfield residents – and everyone in Lane County – get the comprehensive coverage the city deserves.

Lillian, who graduated from Drake University and interned for two years at the Des Moines Register, reported at the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune before coming to Oregon to work at The Register-Guard and the Corvallis Gazette-Times.

She has lived in Lane County for nearly 10 years, and you may have met her in her most recent position, running a small business as manager of Run Hub Northwest in Eugene.

Jaime Adame has extensive reporting experience, including covering crime at the Wenatchee World in Washington, business at the Abilene Reporter-News in Texas and city government at the Urban Tulsa Weekly in Oklahoma.  

Most recently, he spent more than eight years covering higher education for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Fayetteville.

But we are not done. Check out the whole growing team here.

We are adding two more correspondents (city of Eugene and the Ducks) as well as a photographer, copy editor and managing editor to round out what will be the second-largest local newsroom in Oregon. 

Sign up for a Lookout Listens

We’ve begun our Lookout Listens sessions. These are Lookout-hosted sessions, at our downtown Eugene office or in the community. We assemble a dozen or so readers and ask what they’d like to see us cover. You can sign up for them here.

Lookout Parties

We believe getting us all together, members and journalists, is important. We met some of you at one of our first launch parties, with a couple of pictures below, of the good time. This year, we’ll be inviting all members to launch parties and open houses. 

Lookout in the News

Many of you who have followed the news about local news know that Lookout is a contrarian. We’re building local news organizations while hedge fund owners are cutting and cutting and cutting some more. Now, Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab, which covers the news business, has focused on our launch here.

The Knight Foundation also highlighted Lookout as part of “The case for local news expansion”.

In Oregon, the legislature is considering how to turn around local news loss. We’ve written our opinion on it – and suggestions to improve any legislation, here.

ICYMI

Finally, we know you are all busy – and may have missed some of our first month of coverage. 

Here are some of our top stories, in case you’d like to stay updated. 

The first two months have been good and it’s going to get better as we aim to exemplify the words on our masthead: Know more. Every day.

And let us know what you think. Write us at newsroom@lookoutlocal.com.

Thanks for reading.

Dann Miller, Executive Editor
Ken Doctor, Founder and CEO

Dann Miller is the executive editor of Lookout Eugene-Springfield, bringing decades of leadership experience in both traditional and digital newsrooms.