Eric Rynston-Lobel

1 week ago | localnewsinitiative.northwestern.edu | Eric Rynston-Lobel |Mark Caro |Paul Farhi |Hannah Carroll

Melanie Jongsma still smiles when you call her a ‘YouTuber.’ It’s not a title she would’ve imagined being associated with when she took over as publisher of The Lansing Journal in 2020. All she wanted at the time was to keep local news afloat in her hometown in the south suburbs of Chicago. But as recently as nine months ago, some of the videos she posted to The Lansing Journal’s YouTube channel received north of 90,000 views. “We used to consider 1,000 views really good,” Jongsma said.