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Yes, there is much to celebrate around here.
Black Warrior Riverkeeper turned 25 this weekend.
We here at Birmingham begin our twelfth year of serving as a resource for Birmingham’s civically curious today.
We’ve been pretty busy these past twelve months.
We launched this new website, expanded how we approach our Monday Morning Watch posts and continue to try our best to provide a valuable recap of the previous week via our BW Recommends posts on Sundays. We’ve been proud of our work on the current state of our water utility, Central Alabama Water, and look forward to sharing more reporting with you soon on that front. We’re also proud of current and past contributors and the awards received for their work.
We’ve continued to work on reaching people where they are. We were one of the beta testers for the Nextdoor local news initiative (something that’s been surprisingly positive for us), while our presence on platforms like LinkedIn, Threads, and Bluesky have been pleasantly surprising, especially when many ask about the likelihood of us ever turning to offline methods of sharing our work. Existing partnerships with organizations like Alabama Reflector, the Birmingham Times and WBHM have long let us dip a toe into that possibility, though we’d like to go a little further in 2027, if you’ll let us.
Today also marks World News Day, along with UN International Day for Universal Access to Information, a global campaign to highlight the value of fact-based reporting and trusted journalism.
Those who know me well know I often pay attention to massive efforts like this but don’t often participate in them. Considering the state of local journalism, it was time to make an exception.
While I’ve spent most of my professional life working for or associated with nonprofit organizations, it’s still tough to explain the differences between most of them and those that are journalistic in nature, even to fellow nonprofit veterans.
The short version: it’s harder to “just” be a resource instead of being a provider. There are similarities in how those approaches are viewed by the general public, but they are different. We are not lobbying for specific causes or promoting a specific agenda aside from our belief that news and information should be readily available for any and all who seek it. This means we’re focused more on getting the facts right than we are about whether it aligns with my beliefs or those of our board or our contributing journalists. This also means that an editorial firewall exists that ensures the board nor our donors have control over what and how we cover Birmingham and Jefferson County.
Donations and sponsorships support our work; they do not determine what we cover or how we cover it.
Watching something like the current situation at WBHM involving whether a newsroom is able to continue operating independent of its license holder unfold the way it has is frustrating and disturbing. It’s also scary and an example of what we don’t want for the future of journalism in our state.
It’s worth noting that we exist to serve the public good instead of a specific group or client base. We and many of our fellow outlets try our best to make our work free, hoping it leads to being as accessible and available as possible. This also means that for much of our existence, we’ve avoided things like government contracts and client fees to avoid the appearance of partiality or bias.
It’s hard to gain trust and visibility in a world filled with noise and a need for everything to be “breaking” and most important, but considering the significant increase in follower counts on Facebook and Instagram, we’re happy to have yours.
Your support helps us avoid extended gaps in coverage, strengthens our reporting on the issues shaping Birmingham’s and Jefferson County’s future, and allows us to continue producing journalism that keeps our community civically curious. It allows us to do time-sensitive investigations, more thorough coverage of our public institutions, and follow important stories beyond their initial headlines.
If you’ve made it here, I do have a couple of asks for you:
- If you’re able to support us financially, especially if you can do so monthly, please take a moment and do so. It helps us do a better job of planning ahead and allows us to pursue more complex projects.
- (If you already do, or plan to do so, thanks!)
- If you can’t but know of someone (or several people) who can, please share the link to our donation form. We’re in the process of carrying out what is essentially an extended end-of-year campaign, attempting to secure $50,000 before Nov. 1 to wrap up work in 2026 (we’ve raised $12,233 in new donations and pledges so far) due to some unforeseen funding issues, and at least an additional $75,000 before December 31, 2026, to give us solid footing to begin 2027.
- I’d also ask you to consider reaching out or connecting us with companies interested in serving as a sponsor for one of our sections or of our newsletter. We are still finalizing the details, but those sponsorships will be governed by that same editorial firewall I described earlier, and we believe this would be another way to show support.
This support will make it easier to listen to the community wherever and however you choose to connect with us. It will help us identify the questions, stories and needs that matter most so our work feels less like we are talking at you and more like we are working with you.
Thanks for the privilege to serve the City Built to Change the South. We appreciate it more than you know.
André Natta is the executive editor of BirminghamWatch and the executive director of its parent nonprofit organization, the Alabama Initiative for Independent Journalism.