What a difference a year makes. This week marks one year since the Chestnut Hill Community Association stepped in to manage the Chestnut Hill Local and issued an emergency appeal to keep the paper afloat. With newspapers across the country struggling or folding, advertising on the decline, and countless pressures facing local journalism, publishing a paper that serves Northwest Philadelphia and Springfield Township felt like a task for Goliath himself.

We still face those pressures — but now we also have momentum, optimism and a renewed sense of purpose. Thanks to our team, our supporters, and frankly a lot of sweat equity poured into planning and action, we have real progress to share. Below are several good-news stories that explain why we’re feeling bullish about the Local.

• Strides in governance: We’re making steady progress on our promise to seat new board members by this fall. Having the right people in the right roles is essential to our long-term sustainability. We’re thrilled to welcome four outstanding new board members — Meg Cohen Ragas, Anne Gerbner, Shawn Gibbons and Paul McCarthy. They are committed to being a working board and will begin strategic planning with our Lenfest consultant in early 2027. Sneak peek alert: We’ve already identified digital engagement, circulation growth and pricing, editorial pipeline development, diversity efforts, governance and fundraising as key areas of focus.

• Strides in Big Journalism support: At the end of September, the Local earned a highly competitive Lenfest “Every Voice, Every Vote” grant of $35,000 to support nonpartisan voter election coverage for the next two years. This is a big deal for us, for the neighborhood, and for those serving in political and community roles. Without local press, the issues that matter here don’t get attention — and attention drives action. We are honored that Lenfest recognizes our newsroom excellence and trusts us to help strengthen voter engagement. Voter guides and election coverage are already a core strength of the Local, and now we’ll be able to do even more.

• Strides in exciting collaborations: In this issue, you’ll see the kickoff of the Local’s collaboration with Sam Katz’s History Making Productions to bring his 10-part history series — “In Pursuit: Philadelphia and the Making of America” — to life as a film festival across 10 or more Northwest Philadelphia and Springfield Township venues. As media partner, the Local has secured the venues and assembled an exciting roster of panelists who will join us for conversations about history past, present and future. For each screening, we’ll profile one of our panel guests and share more about the featured episode. We’re also offering a raffle to encourage attendance at multiple screenings — so we hope you’ll join us at more than one venue in Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, Germantown and Springfield Township. You can help by sharing the paper or our social media posts about the film festival and panel with friends and neighbors.

• Strides in continuing excellence in journalism: Even more meaningful than earning editorial and advertising accolades from the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association — which recently recognized the Local as a News Organization of the Year for the fourth year in a row — is the feedback we receive from our readers. Your notes and comments about our coverage of community news, environmental issues, history and preservation, arts and culture, schools and everyday human interest stories are a bright spot in our days. I often hear: The Local just keeps getting better than ever. If a newspaper could blush from compliments, we’d be pink with delight.

• Strides in reaching new advertisers: Small local businesses are the heart of Northwest Philadelphia. In the last 12 months, 50 new advertisers have run print and digital ads in the Local, Wissahickon Magazine or Explore to share their services, events, food, fun, fashion, home décor and more. We appreciate every advertiser — whether they’ve been with us for years or just joined us. We don’t take your business for granted. Each ad represents a commitment to our newsroom and to the sustainability of local journalism. We hope readers continue to support the businesses that support the Local.

There’s more on the horizon, but it’s time to wrap up. When we talked last fall about writing a new chapter for the Local, we didn’t realize how much of a thriller it would be. Stay tuned — there’s more good news to come.

Laura Lucas

Publisher

Chestnut Hill Local