The local paper of one of Los Angeles’s oldest neighborhoods is a key player in expanding community news coverage. The Boyle Heights Beat (BHB) is the inaugural LA Local News Initiative member, a nonprofit seeking to bridge the information gap within L.A. The initiative started a couple of years ago when the American Journalism Project (AJP) asked residents in Boyle Heights and other East LA neighborhoods where they get their news from. BHB was a name that came up multiple times, prompting the AJP to launch a first-of-its-kind initiative with the paper.
The LA Local News Initiative will establish local newsrooms throughout Los Angeles and help them collaborate with media partners, community organizations, and each other. BHB will serve as the launching pad newsroom. The initiative is working to build an ecosystem of publications that work together to distribute and inform communities across Los Angeles.
Elisa Garcia, a resident of Boyle Heights and reader of the newspaper, stressed the paper’s importance to the community, “They’re a big part of the way we consume information, and they’re a very trusted source … There’s so much talent in neighborhoods like Boyle Heights; if you bring the resources and create the spaces, the talent is here,” Garcia said.
The initiative comes at a time when local papers across the country are closing their doors. A lack of local news leads to an informational gap for people who cannot afford access to trusted news sources via subscriptions. LA local news initiative aims to “provide free access to high-quality news that looks to increase civic engagement, maintain accountability, build trust, and [uplift] local communities.”
A 2023 Medill School of Journalism study found that the country is losing nearly two local papers a week, many belonging to historically underserved communities. Local newspapers are critical for covering important stories, especially in cities like Boyle Heights which is 61% Latino. Latino stories often go underreported, and members of the community are starting to lose the Spanish-language newspapers they turn to. Therefore, BHB is looking to change the local news media landscape.
“When we first launched in 2010, our mission, really was por y para la comunidad, for and by the community, and that hasn’t changed,” said Jessica Perez, the Senior Editor of BHB. She grew up in the area and began reporting with the paper when it was founded, leaving to work for the LA Times before returning to mentor the next generation of reporters. “At the root of it, we are serving residents here in Los Angeles… we are a service to our audience, our readers, our community, and we want to get them the information that they need,” said Perez.
Over the last 14 years, the newspaper’s role has grown from being a source of information to becoming a pillar of the community that fosters civic engagement and hosts a myriad of events. These events range from forums on climate change to environmental justice, which allow attendees to learn more about politics. Additionally, it allows BHB journalists the opportunity to engage with the issues affecting their readers.
The Boyle Heights Beat trains local high school students in journalism through print, photos, and podcasting. Through a network of professional journalists and editors – who serve as mentors – the students are taught the foundations of journalism and report on cities around LA. The staff also includes audience and community engagement members who facilitate the behind-the-scenes workings of the paper.
The newspaper’s success and its potential to inspire and support future generations of journalists from under-represented neighborhoods has shown itself through its reporters. Student journalists contribute to a portion of the newspaper and play a role in its growth while getting to represent the communities they report on. “We have the power to change our communities for the better,” said Anakin River, a youth reporter for BHB, “communities that have historically been underserved, and have a powerful resistance movement.”