Here We Go

Changing the tempo and finding what works.

This month, when the calendar flipped, for the first time in over ten years of publishing we’re intentionally late with the next edition. Don’t look for “March”, folks – it’s gonna be “Spring 2026” and we’ll roll it out towards the middle of the month, in time for the seasonal shift.

Instead of 12 editions a year, The Local will print on a quarterly schedule from here. We’re also adding more pages and making other changes to accommodate the new demands of our weird and trying times.

Who would’ve imagined that in 2026 America, you could be criminally charged for telling someone their rights, or where to find food, shelter or medical help? 🤯

Now more than ever, physical media can serve vulnerable communities as a safe, untraceable way to share information. We’re working with local and national organizations to curate and publish the most useful resources and support networks for our area.

We’re also expanding our focus. When we started in 2014, we were a hybrid of print and neighborhood social media – back then, most of us connected on Facebook and Nextdoor. We’d livestream public meetings and hundreds of people would comment along in real time. Neighbors discussed traffic, parking, zoning, local business, events, and key issues.

My, how things have changed. Public conversations have switched to private chats. Feeds today don’t care who you follow. Instead, they bring you what’s most likely to get your reaction or, ideally, a national hot-button issue that kicks off a big kerfuffle where everyone piles on. For social media platforms, attention is currency. It’s also a reward for users, whose brains light up at every like, comment, and share.

With news cycles spinning at full tilt these days, print provides a welcome break; it slows the pace and tempers the urgency. By publishing quarterly, we’ll have time to summarize and contextualize months of headlines into accessible narratives, along with action steps and ways to get involved.

Of course, all our Local favorites are staying: original art, food reviews, community spotlights, Ask Athena, Missed Connections – and all the wonderful pop-in contributors who make our paper the Philly grab-bag that it is. Our website’s still publishing, too (obviously), and please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as well.

One good thing about being a dinky paper is the freedom to experiment. We don’t have shareholders, a corporate playbook, or even a business plan. We’re here to try something different and see what happens. With any luck, this time next year we’ll all feel more informed, connected, and optimistic.

🙌 Get Ready With Us!

While we’re building Spring 2026, here are some ways you can participate, if you’d like:

– Send us the link that made you stop scrolling.
– Tell us what felt underreported this winter.
– Pitch us something you’ve been thinking about but didn’t know where to put.
– Support a local thing that still matters.
– Invite a neighbor to meet and talk about something that isn’t doom.

✈️🌤️ Off we go into the giant blue yonder. See you soon — spring is just around the corner!

What do you think? Are you ready for a break in the news cycle? Does protecting our neighbors feel more pressing these days than usual? We’d love to know your thoughts on ways a printed publication might better serve communities in 2026. Please leave your comments (and questions) below.