CALIFORNIA NEWSWIRE (LONG BEACH, Calif.) — NEWS: The Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal, two of the city’s most trusted independent news outlets, are joining The LA Local, a nonprofit news organization dedicated to building and supporting community-centered newsrooms across Los Angeles County.
By joining The LA Local, the Post and Business Journal gain access to added resources, collaboration with other outlets serving the area and regional reporting capacity. The Long Beach newsroom will receive financial support, maintain its current staff size, and expand its capacity for community engagement and neighborhood coverage, all while remaining locally led, independently branded, and deeply rooted in Long Beach. The integration is based on a shared commitment to ensuring Long Beach residents continue to have access to strong, independent local journalism.
Led by Founding CEO Michele Siqueiros, The LA Local has launched nonprofit community newsrooms throughout L.A. County, expanded existing outlets like Boyle Heights Beat and invested in regional news organizations like LAist and CalMatters.
“Long Beach residents deserve journalism that reflects their lives, their neighborhoods and their city,” said Michele Siqueiros, founding CEO of The LA Local. “The LA Local was built around that belief, and the Long Beach Post and Business Journal have spent years doing that work. Welcoming them into The LA Local means more resources for the reporters who show up every day for this community, and more ways for residents to engage with the coverage that affects them most.”
The Long Beach Post and Long Beach Business Journal, which became nonprofit news organizations in 2023 under the umbrella of the Long Beach Journalism Initiative, will continue day-to-day operations with the same local focus as part of The LA Local.
Over time, The LA Local also plans to expand into Long Beach its LA Documenters program, part of the award-winning Documenters Network by City Bureau, which recruits, trains and pays local residents to document local public meetings, and a youth journalism program that works with local high schools to train young people in journalism. In addition to expanded programming, The LA Local will deepen community engagement work in Long Beach and remains committed to hearing from residents and stakeholders about how best to strengthen local news and how the Post and Business Journal can remain effective informers for the city.
Melissa Evans, who served as CEO of the Long Beach Journalism Initiative, will remain as Managing Director of Long Beach, leading fundraising and engagement for the publication. Jeremiah Dobruck will continue leading the Long Beach newsroom as its top editor.
“Local news across the country has been through enormous change, and so has the Post,” Melissa Evans said. “We have worked hard to create a sustainable path forward while our reporting team continues to do excellent, meaningful journalism for this city. This integration gives us greater stability and the ability to keep growing from a stronger foundation, while preserving the local reporting Long Beach deserves.”
Over the past two decades, local journalism in Long Beach – like in many communities – has steadily felt the pain of a shifting media market, leaving fewer resources to cover a growing and complex city. This announcement financially stabilizes the Long Beach Post and Business Journal ensuring they continue producing fact-based journalism. The LA Local model is built on rigorous journalistic standards, including editorial independence, professionalism and accuracy, while ensuring coverage remains free and accessible to the public-supported by a mix of philanthropic, corporate and membership revenue.
“The Long Beach Post is an important piece of our community’s infrastructure,” said Michelle Byerly, Executive Director of The Nonprofit Partnership. “It connects residents to each other and to the resources they need, grounding them in trusted, local facts. Keeping communities informed and engaged is a public service and the Post is essential to that. With The LA Local, a stronger Post means a stronger Long Beach.”
The LA Local was created following an extensive community listening effort, and with support from a broad coalition of local and national supporters, including anchor investments from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, The Spiegel Family Fund, the American Journalism Project and others. Its founding Board of Directors includes local journalism, community, and philanthropic leaders with deep roots in and a passionate commitment to Southern California.
Earlier this year, The LA Local launched new publications that expanded coverage to 10 communities in L.A. County, adding 29 newsroom jobs within its own newsrooms and at LAist and CalMatters. It continues to represent one of the nation’s largest nonprofit news startups and is fueled by $19.3 million in philanthropic investments and partnerships with more than 20 area media outlets and universities, ensuring that local reporting remains vital, accessible and reflects the communities it serves.
“Long Beach City College and our local newsrooms share a common goal: We are both institutions dedicated to public service and the empowerment of our residents,” said Uduak-Joe Ntuk, President of the Long Beach Community College Board of Trustees. “We are excited to welcome The LA Local to Long Beach and look forward to a relationship where community voices and concerns are given the coverage all our neighborhoods deserve.”
About The LA Local
The LA Local is a nonprofit news organization built to strengthen Los Angeles by serving and connecting local communities with trusted, community-centered journalism, starting in Boyle Heights, East L.A., Koreatown, Pico-Union, Westlake, Inglewood, South L.A., and now Long Beach. The LA Local also provides region-wide coverage, partnering with more than 20 local media outlets and universities to strengthen journalism in the region. The LA Local’s newsroom also includes youth journalists and LA Documenters, a program that has recruited, trained and paid more than 100 Angelenos to document local government meetings. Learn more at https://thelalocal.org/.
Logo link: https://thelalocal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/logo-the-la-local.svg
