Laramie Reporter to celebrate three years of local, in-depth reporting
Join me for the anniversary fundraiser at Devine Eats next week as we reinvest in local journalism and celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.
Between uncovering injustices, analyzing legislation and questioning assumptions, the Laramie Reporter has brought consistent, local and in-depth reporting to its community since 2021.
I’m immensely proud of all that’s been accomplished under this banner and I’m inviting you to celebrate those accomplishments with me, in person, during the first ever live event for the Laramie Reporter.
Devine Eats is hosting the celebration Saturday, March 16, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. downtown at 211 Grand Avenue. On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, we’ll be serving up corned beef and cabbage and a vegetarian Irish stew while attendees are treated to Celtic music from Alba Née.
We’ll have ways to donate virtually and in cash and we’ll have limited edition stickers for sale.
All proceeds go to the Laramie Reporter and will be used to keep producing the high-quality, deeply researched journalism we’re known for.
I launched this news outlet in the winter of 2021 out of frustration. It was difficult to get deeply researched, long-form stories about Laramie published. The local paper had a different focus. And the statewide publications I was writing for, namely Wyoming Public Media and WyoFile, often turned down stories they deemed “too local” (and perhaps rightly).
But I couldn’t help myself from covering stories with big local impacts — the worsening pandemic, the movement for police accountability, political scandals and campaign spending. In desperation, I started publishing these on a lackluster blog site. But after a few months, and after some encouragement from journalist friends, I launched something more worthy of the work I was doing — this outfit, the Laramie Reporter.
Since then, we’ve caught up with the town’s most notorious landlords, we’ve uncovered police lies and city council shenanigans, we’ve highlighted the tragedies and the triumphs of Laramie’s LGBTQ community. We’ve followed the fight for aquifer protection, and high-profile lawsuits and declining school budgets, and we’ve shed a light on a power struggle at the university threatening disability services for the entire state.
We’ve experimented too. Like the time we published a story in Ukrainian. Or the time I wrote a personal essay about humanism and kidney donation.
It’s been a busy three years, and the next three years don’t look any less busy. With your support, we can keep this project going. With enough support, we can expand this project and do even more.
If you come to our event on March 16, I’ll ask you for money. Don’t take it personally; I’m asking everyone for money. But even if you can’t fork over the cash, please come celebrate three years of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.
Your Laramie Reporter,
Jeff