I think it’s safe to say that most adults miss having summer breaks. Not vacations — breaks. Ones where you’re not necessarily going anywhere fun or exciting, but you can stay home with no agenda (other than the chores your mom told you to do, which you’d frantically start 30 minutes before she got home from work).
We’ve been building RANGE for a little over four years now. Our team has grown from one guy in his attic talking into a podcast microphone to a team of four (and two interns! And two freelance editors!). And we’re doing a lot of difficult work.
In the first seven months of this year, we’ve posted 121 articles. Though some of those are republications from our news partners to elevate their work, the vast majority of those articles are original RANGE work. They include us uncovering that the region wasn’t adequately tracking and sharing opioid overdose data — and being part of the reason the city finally started getting better data. Those articles include reporting how Spokane Airport officials knew of the West Plains PFAs contamination but kept quiet about it for six years. They also include us taking a look at the economic options available to Eastern Washington strippers after the only strip club on this side of the state closed down.
But along with the deeper journalism we’ve done this year, we’ve also written 34 weeks of CIVICS coverage, meaning we’ve made getting involved and informed about civic matters much more accessible to our community. We also launched a weekly Friday newsletter, Wide RANGE, where we round up the news from all around Spokane, so you know what’s going on. We relaunched our podcast and are continuing to make it happen. We’re even on TikTok now!
Outside of our newsroom, we partnered with The Community School to work with high school students to report and write their own stories that then get published in RANGE. More recently, we partnered with a local advocate to inform and bring in our communities voices into the conversation about the possible privatization of Spokane Regional Health District’s opioid treatment services. We’ve also trained more than 30 people as Documenters, so they can get paid to take notes at public meetings.
It’s a lot of work and we’re definitely not done. But as we continue to build RANGE, we need to make sure what we’re building is sustainable, both in funding (consider becoming a member!) and for the humans doing the work. And that means taking collective rest.
It’s a privilege to do this work, but it’s also a privilege that takes an emotional and even physical toll.
So we’re going to take a break next week and come back ready to kick ass in August – we even timed our break with Spokane City Council’s so we won’t be missing too much by not doing CIVICS.
As always, if you have questions or feedback about any and all things RANGE, please send us an email at team@rangemedia.co
If you want to join us in building a sustainable news outlet focused on empowering our community, become a member starting at $10/month, up your membership, or send us a one-time tip.
