As a new wave of cuts by legacy media add to the spread of news deserts across the U.S. landscape, the Latino News Network (LNN) announces it is expanding its news coverage footprint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs other news outlets are forced to retreat, we are meeting the challenge and advancing,\u201d said Hugo Balta<\/a>, Publisher of LNN. \u201cIt\u2019s a presidential election year, the migrant crisis at the border is spilling over cities across the country, COVID is still gripping the community, poverty, unequal access to health care, lack of education, stigma, and racism -coverage addressing the social determinants of health and democracy has never been more important for Latinos.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n LNN\u2019s website is converting from a marketing landing page for the seven independent digital news outlets it oversees to a national news website expanding reporting focused on the Hispanic and Latino communities. \u201cThe need is greater than we can provide,\u201d said Balta. Since taking over in 2019, Balta has led the expansion of LNN by adding six full-fledged local news outlets. \u201cThe revamped LNN national website will help us accelerate our coverage reach by leveraging what we have learned in the past five years: editorial focus, mission, and collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021, Connecticut Latino News<\/a>, the flagship website of LNN, was one of ten U.S. newsrooms elected to participate in the Solutions Journalism Network\u2019s Advancing Democracy<\/a> project. The fellowship introduced the principles of solutions journalism to LNN, changing reporting focused on highlighting social issues to reporting on the responses to them. Solutions stories are anchored in credible evidence, explaining how and why responses are working or not working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2022, the Latino News Network, led by Illinois Latino News<\/a>, was chosen to partake in the nine-month Democracy SOS fellowship<\/a>, supporting reporters and editors in significantly strengthening journalism\u2019s role in advancing our democracy through innovative approaches that build civic engagement, equity, and healthy discourse. The experience transformed coverage centered on politics to one on how democracy works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n LNN is dedicated to building trust with its audience through collaboration, inclusion, and transparency by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cForming partnerships and collaborating with other newsrooms \u2013 big and small \u2013 has been essential to LNN\u2019s growth and mission to provide greater visibility and voice to the local Latino communities we serve,\u201d said Annabel Rocha<\/a>, Writer\/Editor for Latino News Network Midwest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Through the support of fellowships from the University of Southern California\u2019s Center for Health Journalism and the Journalism & Women Symposium<\/a>, Rocha led a series on period poverty<\/a> by partnering in part with WBEZ, Chicago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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