The Land is a local, nonprofit news organization that reports on Cleveland’s neighborhoods and inner-ring suburbs. Through in-depth solutions journalism and education initiatives, our mission is to foster accountability, inform the community, and inspire people to take action.
During the early days of 2020 as the world was coming to grips with a global pandemic, our founding team realized a new kind of newsroom was needed: one to fill the gap left by disruptions in local media organizations as a result of changed business models and underreporting and inaccurate reporting of Cleveland neighborhoods over many decades. The Land began with a mission to create an outlet that truly puts Cleveland first.
To provide a sense of agency to Northeast Ohioans, we developed a Community Journalism (CJ) program to teach residents how to tell compelling stories from their own communities. We teach students the basics of ethical journalism. We pay our students to pursue investigations into local issues, unearth profiles of key figures in their towns, and to write with with the experience and wisdom of a person who truly knows their neigborhood. The students who finish the program and publish receive a generous stipend. Some students go onto professional journalism courses and careers.
Today, we’ve created an outstanding nonprofit organization, built an engaged board, and trained more than 150 residents as community journalists who are reporting on neighborhoods across Cleveland.
The Land’s Impact:
- Over the past two years, our readership has eclipsed 1-million page views and 700,000 unique visitors. We also partner with peer publications to boost impactful local reporting and expand readership for our burgenoning network of Community Journalists.
- We’ve expanded our partnerships with neighborhood groups and nonprofits and our CJ curriculum now includes a Media Literacy program and presentations for young writers in high schools and colleges. We have partnered with high school media programs and students in Cleveland and surrounding cities.
- Our reporters have garnered awards from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Press Club of Cleveland, and many other organizations; published books spurred by their reporting for The Land; and founded publications and organizations in their neighborhoods.
- We have established paid college internships for Cleveland students and offer free programming for the community through libraries and community groups.
We hope you find our work valuable and you will choose to support us by becoming a recurring donor, keeping our journalism free for all. Your support can help us continue telling stories by and for Clevelanders.
Our approach
On-the-ground reporting
- We are dedicated to strengthening our city by publishing balanced, well-researched news.
- We are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in our newsroom and our coverage.
- We focus on accountability and solutions journalism.
Civic engagement
- Our stories are in-depth and offer resources for getting involved.
- We report on solutions that help people to improve their lives and neighborhoods.
- With reporting that reaches out to a multitude of residents and community leaders, we help to foster civic engagement.
Elevate community voices
- Through our Community Journalism program, we train and pay Northeast Ohio residents to research and write stories about their neighborhoods.
- Our on-the-ground reporting examines how issues affecting Northeast Ohio impact people’s lives.
- Through community engagement, we elevate marginalized voices such as communities of color, low-income people and LGBTQ+ communities that are not as often seen and heard in traditional media.
Collaboration
- We work with other media organizations to report and plan coverage collaboratively.
- We encourage other media to “steal our stories” as long as they credit The Land.
- We share stories from other media organizations across the city on thelandcle.org and through our social channels.
Our team
Chris Mosby, Executive Director
Chris is an award-winning writer and editor. His work has been published by Patch, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Crain’s Cleveland, Yahoo, MSN, and more. He has been honored by the Press Club of Cleveland, the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Business Press Editors, among others. He is a previous president of the Society of Professional Journalists in Cleveland, current board president for Cleveland Autism Treatment Specialists, and a frequent guest lecturer at Northeast Ohio colleges. He lives in Cleveland Heights with his family.
Faith Boone, Editorial Consultant
Faith Boone, is the founder and lead consultant for Boone Logic. Her work has been featured in the Plain Dealer, Sun News, Cleveland.com, Northeast Ohio Parent, and more. She is a former vice president of the Society of Professional Journalists in Cleveland and a mentor for The Land’s Community Journalism program. Faith is a staunch advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. She’s dedicated to supporting community initiatives that align with her values and mission, actively contributing to non-profit boards.
Editorial independence policy
We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News:
Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services, or opinions.
We accept gifts, grants, and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.
Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.
Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards. For more information, please see our transparency policy.
How we choose stories
Our mission is to report on news that affects Cleveland neighborhoods and Clevelanders, so that’s our starting point for whether a story is a fit for The Land.
In addition, we consider:
- Is the story in one of our core coverage areas of economic development, government, community development, health and social equity, or environmental impact? We can’t cover everything, and we don’t try. Typically, we leave breaking news, criminal justice reform, education, service journalism (“how-to’s”), and news outside of Cleveland to other outlets.
- Is it newsworthy? If we’ve covered this before, what’s new here, and how does it impact our readers?
- Does it do more than point out a problem? Can the story put the problem in its greater context – why the problem exists and, ideally, what solutions are possible in Cleveland? We’re not just whistleblowers. Whenever possible, we’re solutions seekers.
- Does the story impact everyday Clevelanders and neighborhoods? We strive to explore and explain why our stories matter to residents and to include resident voices. Please reach out if you have any story tips, suggestions, or questions. We want you to tell us, and we count on you to help us cover the stories that matter.
