Hello beloved readers. It’s me, Emma DiMaggio, the managing editor of that newspaper you always get delivered on Fridays but don’t remember signing up for. (It’s free, and it’s the Signal Tribune, not the Signal Hill Tribune.)
I’m writing to you today to let you know that I’ll be stepping down as managing editor of the Signal Tribune. Don’t worry, you’ll be in good hands. Samantha Diaz, whose bylines you’ve probably seen in the paper, is stepping up as the Tribune’s new managing editor.
It occurred to me that, since becoming the managing editor of the paper over a year ago, I’ve never checked in. The paper has just slowly morphed and changed into something that—I like to think—is entirely new. Suddenly, there was a new website. And then the paper looked different. And at one point the paper stopped coming altogether and then suddenly reappeared on your doorstep. For a business built entirely on communication, we aren’t too good at communicating.
What I’d like to communicate to you now is this: support local news, in any and all of its forms. Newspapers, especially local newspapers, will require reader support to survive the future ahead of us. The road is getting rockier, challenges are mounting, and the horizon, frankly, is ablaze.
Sure, you can get news from other papers in the area. The Long Beach Post does a pretty good job. So does the Beachcomber, the Grunion Gazette, and the Press-Telegram.
But we’ve got stories that they don’t. We’re on the ground in your communities, looking at them through our unique lens, contributing to your diverse offering of media and news of all things Long Beach.
None of those outlets let you know that a nonprofit stepped in to save Long Beach’s largest urban farm, or how local hospitals dealt with a nationwide blood shortage, that Indigenous women are fighting to save a sacred plant from consumerism, that gun sales surged before the last presidential election or how advocates are fighting against a state loophole that’s causing evictions.
They didn’t tell you how a bar owner turned a vacant dirt lot into a beer garden, that a resident turned to Facebook group chats to teach Cambodian elders about vaccines, that there’s a community garden behind a Peruvian restaurant or that the Aquarium of the Pacific is viral on TikTok.
They didn’t let you know about Wrigley’s annual pie-making contest, or about the Boy Scout building a community garden, about the Long Beach City College student selling milkweed to save the local monarch population or about the pickleball players feuding over tennis courts.
They didn’t let you know that the Islamic Center hosted socially-distanced Eid prayers, or where LGBTQ+ residents can go if they don’t want to spend Christmas alone, or about the local quilting collective that donates their creations to victims of domestic violence.
They didn’t let you know that the national champion of fingerboarding lives in Long Beach, that Signal Hill has one of the best Magic the Gathering shops in SoCal, or that local performers created a film noir sock puppet musical.
They didn’t let you know where to buy a candy-coated pickle, or a pipe that supports immigrants facing deportation, or fresh sugarcane juice, or locally-grown mushrooms, or fresh pasta.
They didn’t let you know how to join competitive cornhole tournaments, or an 89-year-old cactus club, or Long Beach’s largest running club, or a club playing the centuries-old Chinese game Go, or lessons in the Filipino martial art Kali.
Or maybe they did let you know. But we did first.
The point is, with our tiny team of four staffers (and two freelancers), we’re able to cover stories that you can’t get anywhere else. We were the first, and sometimes only, outlet to cover the stories I listed above, along with many more.
We’re here to shine a light on your communities, to increase your connectivity to your neighbors and to your neighborhoods, to let you know what’s up with politics in Long Beach and Signal Hill, to show you where you can eat, play, volunteer, and spend your hard-earned dollars.
Given our limited resources, we think we do a pretty good job.
If you’d like to support the Signal Tribune, feel free to send us an email at newspaper@signaltribune.com to let us know if you’re enjoying what we’re writing. Or, if you’re feeling generous, you can send us a donation below. (We’ve also put a donation box at the bottom of every article if you feel more generous tomorrow.) It’s true what they say, democracy dies in darkness.
It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve the Long Beach and Signal Hill community for the past two years. Thank you to all who have read our stories, and to all the residents who have given us the privilege of taking a glance into your lives. Thank you for entrusting us to tell your stories. There are many more to come.
