well....it was not an april fools...it's happening ‼️ we're asking YOU to vote on a name for D.C.'s new worker-led news outlet ‼️ there's an option to leave open-ended feedback as well; we're all ears!
forms.gle/3HKxFPFv67CYZp…

Sometimes your former employer lays off the entire social issues desk, claiming its work was minimally impactful. Then, sometimes, the work you did for it is cited in a brief submitted to the Supreme Court in a case that could criminalize homelessness lawyerscommittee.org/wp-content/upl…

very cool. hopefully the commitment to all 50 states can also extend to local Washington, D.C.!

BREAKING: Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 70 people were killed and 280 were wounded in a strike on a crowd of Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid. apnews.com/article/israel…

Hell yes! Thank you to everyone who pushed WAMU leadership to make the right decision.

Special gratitude to the current workers, who still have so much to lose by speaking up, but you WON this round!!

Breaking: WAMU 88.5 has made access to all published DCist stories available to the public for at least one year as it seeks a long-term home for the archive. The archives are available at DCist.com

Story: wamu.org/story/24/02/28…

During my time WAMU 88.5/DCist, I wrote (and produced FOR radio broadcast) nearly 200 stories.

It was my honor to share the voices of people seldom heard on our airwaves. Folks from El Salvador, Afghanistan, Haiti, Vietnam, Ethiopia — and more — who now call the DC-region home.

Seething as I think about having to scramble to save PDFs of every obituary I wrote, every young person’s byline from the journalism spring break we did with The Creative School, info about deaths at the DC Jail that no other outlet reported… #UnlockDCist

one issue with the news desert framing (which has been valuable!), is that it misses places like DC - which has as many journalists per capita as any place in the world yet whose residents starve for local coverage and civic information. the shuttering of DCist is a crisis

That’s not even the whole list. We lost more beloved colleagues who kept our tech & database systems humming, our broadcast tower running, & our digital projects on schedule. Their behind-the-scenes work was invaluable in bringing you the news on the radio and DCist and WAMU.

If you need a digital website wizard, you call Jen Abella. She led so many impactful web projects, including the site for our Lift Every Voice celebration of Black History Month. And she was always a voice for inclusion and community at WAMU. wamu.org/story/24/02/01…

Denisse Bonilla-Chaoui is the woman who kept the whole newsroom organized. Going on vacation? Denisse logged it. Applying for an award? Denisse probably helped. She kept us on task and informed — and was so kind doing it.

Here’s to Teresa Frontado, who was our news director. She cared so deeply about sharing the stories of our community — particularly the joyful, quirky, fun ones. We’ll especially miss her Día de los Muertos celebrations.

Rob Bertrand was the guy who oversaw the team behind all our technical systems — from our broadcast tower to the shared programs we use to get our audio to your ears. He’s been at WAMU for nearly eight years.

WAMU veteran James Coates worked to bring in donations to make sure we could bring you the news. He was a tremendous repository of institutional knowledge, and we will miss him very much.

.Abbey Monsour was our audience producer. How did our Instagram and newsletter balloon in recent times? Well in part thanks to her. She has a knack for knowing what resonates with our DCist/WAMU audiences and our journalism had a greater impact because of it.

.Chris Chester was our growth editor. He is among the longest-serving staff members, and his knowledge of DCist/WAMU is without parallel. He handled analytics and social engagement — no one knew how to get our work in front of readers’ eyes like he did.

.Eric Falquero (he/him) was our strategic partnerships editor, connecting us with Street Sense Media, Maryland Matters, and VPM so our websites & broadcasts were filled with news. He launched a source-tracking initiative to ensure our stories reflected the communities we covered.

Rebecca Cooper has a wealth of knowledge about the local arts/food scene. She commissioned & edited some of DCist’s greatest work including recent features on H Street & the DC Arts Commission. Plus, she's a DCist OG and worked for the site in its early blogging days.

.Jacob Fenston was the only local environment reporter in D.C. and was the most senior reporter on staff. He’s a rare audio talent who trained our newsroom to make beautiful radio. We'll miss his feature reporting, like this one about regional tree health: wamu.org/story/23/12/20…