Welcome to Lookout, Bob Welch

Good morning and hope your new year is off to a good start.

We’ve been busy getting Lookout Eugene-Springfield ready for launch and have an update for you today, soon to be followed with lots more news.

In this one, you’ll read more about the community engagement already underway and a way for you to participate – in our Lookout Listens sessions – soon.

Also we’ll share a couple of updates on launch funding and more, along with the ongoing request: SHARE this newsletter. Let your friends and neighbors know they can sign up for it here.

But first, the big news of the week.

Bob Welch will write for Lookout

We’re glad to announce that longtime, treasured-by-many columnist Bob Welch will begin contributing to Lookout as we launch. Bob will write twice a month, with a strong focus on all things local. And for all of you who know his work – 24 years at the Register-Guard – you know that means all things. Bob’s breadth of writing and interests – from the Ducks to veterans to friendship to contemplating his place in the universe – is breathtaking.

He has written more than two dozen books and is a two-time winner of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ “Best Writing” award, one for general columns, one for humor.

What local readers have long known is that Bob will give them a unique take on the big and little things in life.

Bob and I have talked a bunch of times since we began hatching Lookout Eugene-Springfield. As a newspaperman and local citizen, he understood – and supported – the idea, both in our calls and, wonderfully, in his own writing.

Importantly, having Bob be part of Lookout well expresses our intention to reconnect readers with valued voices and reporting that seemingly vanished overnight, while bringing fresh eyes and voices to the mix.

Here’s what he wanted you to know about his coming work with us.

“I’m honored by Lookout’s interest in having me write a column twice a month. I said yes to the opportunity because I believe in local journalism, believe in Lookout’s community-first approach and delight in the chance to be part of what I think could be a historic resurgence of news and opinion for Lane County. My pledge to readers is to add insight into what makes us uniquely ‘us’ and to cut back on my sports metaphors — a little.”

Many of you have seen Bob’s column – “Heart, Humor and Hope” – on Substack, which continues to thrive and grow. I’m a subscriber to it, and urge you to take a look if you haven’t.

Welcome Bob!

Starting in February, we’ll begin our Lookout Listens sessions. It’s a simple format: bringing together eight to 12 readers with a couple of Lookout staffers and talking news. News of the moment, news that should be covered, and news that might be better covered.

We might talk about 2025 in general, or focus on specific topics, from homelessness and business climate to public health, the status of the arts and food insecurity. These are informal sessions, and ones we’ve found at Lookout to produce lots of benefits. Greedily, we get story ideas, often numerous ones, from each session. Lookout’s newsroom gets direct in-person feedback to their work. You might see the story that just needs to get done actually get done. And, of course, the meeting of readers and journalists just produces lots of dividends over time.

Lookout has done these sessions at Lookout Santa Cruz since its inception in 2020, even in the early days of the pandemic, when we sat outside in a wide circle, masked, and tried to understand each other’s words. In Eugene, we’ll do them at our inviting office, but also out in the community, arranged in comfortable private and public spaces that make sharing easy.

As we launch, we’ll aim to put together good, diverse groups for these discussions. We’ll announce some in Lookout itself, but for now, we ask you to let us know whether you are game to join one sometime in 2025. The simple form is here, asking for some basic contact info, and any specific topics you’d particularly like to talk about. Help us get started and sign up today.

Supporting the launch – and Lookout in the Classroom

We’ll give you a fuller report on our funding progress soon, but here we just wanted to thank you and note the incredible ongoing generosity of locals who see what we’re up to.

With just a couple of newsletter asks, we’ve seen 85 people contribute a total of $17,210. They are supporting either the Lookout launch itself or the coming Lookout in the Classroom program or both.

You can, too. Here’s the page to continue to share and, if you’re so moved, give.

Arts, entertainment – and culture

Lookout covers arts, entertainment and the often hard-to-define thing we call culture extensively, and you’ll see that coverage soon.

In preparation, we’re talking with a growing number of community groups. Just within the past few weeks, Community & Student Engagement Manager Amanda Coers has had enthusiastic meetings with the Arts and Business Alliance of Eugene (ABAE), the Eugene Ballet, and #InstaBallet. These sessions are helpful to us in getting to know the needs and viewpoints of community arts groups. If your group would like to connect, please reach out to Amanda.

Upcoming events

While we invite you all in to speak with us, we’re glad to participate in events hosted by the community’s top organizations. And already this new year, we’ll be at three:

League of Women Voters: Feb. 25
City Club: Feb. 28
Professional Women’s Forum: March 14

We’ll have more information on these and other like events in the coming weeks.

If your group would like to involve a Lookouter in a program this year, please let Amanda know.

Statewide coverage

Last month, we noted that we’ll be the Lane County partner of the new Oregon Journalism Project. That’s the four–person investigative unit, now headed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists. OJP is planning deeper coverage around the state – sometimes partnered in reporting with us at Lookout.

They are off to a great start, and we can recommend all three stories they’ve already published and provide you links to them:

Electric Slide

Oregon’s new electric truck rule is disrupting the state’s transportation industry.

The Damned Deschutes

People who love an iconic Oregon river say an electric utility is harming it.

Dr. Robert Pamplin Concedes He Raided His Employees’ Pension Fund

Properties all over Oregon will now be sold so he can pay back tens of millions of dollars.

Soon, you’ll see stories like this on the pages of Lookout Eugene-Springfield, but we don’t want to miss the ones already out there.