Growing up in Jacksonville Beach, the Beaches Leader was always part of my family’s life and probably yours. If you lived at the Beaches for any stretch of time, there’s a good chance you have a clipping from the Leader folded between the pages of a photo album, tucked into a family Bible or framed on your wall. One of mine is a photo of me at 12 years old, knobby-kneed, standing across from my sister, holding the finish-line tape for a race on the beach. My parents were so proud to see us in the paper and carefully saved it. When my father passed away, a big part of our honoring him was to publish his obituary in the Beaches Leader. It served as a small comfort to share his life story and passing with the community he loved so much.
That is the superpower of local news: the community gets to see itself, literally and figuratively, in its pages. Local newspapers do not just chronicle the lives of their readers, they become part of those lives. We’ve already heard it from you: one of the most frequent questions we’ve gotten is whether the paper will be in print. People have told us what a great feeling it was to walk outside and pick up their copy, to read what was discussed at the last city council meeting, follow the progress of Fletcher football or find that picture of their son who is featured for opening a new business in the area.
Local papers source their staff, volunteers and patrons from the place they are covering. Embedded reporting means something a bit different here. Our Senior Reporter, Liza Mitchell, has been embedded for 30 years. That kind of trust isn’t given, it’s earned by being here and focusing on the highest standard of reporting. Because at the end of the day, we are accountable to our neighbors.
That accountability is built into Beach Gazette’s foundation. We’ve structured it differently from the start, founding the paper as a nonprofit organization. That means the paper is transparent, community-governed and built to last beyond any single owner or era of leadership. That’s not a small thing. It also means this paper belongs to this community, not to an owner, an advertiser, or a distant corporate interest.
One of our goals is for Beach Gazette to be something everyone here can see themselves in, regardless of where they land on height amendments, different development projects, rules around e-bikes or where to put public art. We share the same streets, the same city commission meetings, the same traffic. At this level of daily life, we have more in common than not, and there is real value in a publication that keeps bringing readers back to that.
The Beaches has always been a fiercely independent community, one that, when Jacksonville and Duval County consolidated in 1968, voted to govern itself. That independent spirit is reflected in its support of local news. We have three city councils and commissions and distinct municipal services that work hard to support the full, busy civic life of the Beaches. There are so many decisions made by city administrations that impact you directly. Our role is to make sure you know the who, what, when, where and why to make an informed decision and vote confidently in the election cycle or volunteer with the Surfrider Foundation on beach cleanup days. We approach this task with the seriousness it deserves, and we’re already at work.
The struggle of independent print media is real. But there are communities in Texas, Louisiana and right here in Florida who have begun taking their news into their own hands.
What we promise: independent, accurate journalism that keeps you informed, connected, and ready to have a say on the issues that shape daily life at the beach.
What we ask: your support. Become a supporter at whatever level works for you. If you’re a local business, consider sponsoring our work or advertising in the monthly print edition. And if you’re not in a position to contribute right now, spread the word, independent journalism survives on it.
Thank you for taking the time to read and explore Beach Gazette. We hope to have you as readers and supporters and to see you in our pages as contributors, subjects and your smiling faces of course. It would be our absolute honor to find our pages tucked in your family albums and Bibles someday. That would truly be a mark of success for me.
Jennifer Ashley
Editor, Beach Gazette
