Cliff Notes version?
It’s about filling a void by telling the untold tales of a most historic region of the country, and it’s about journalism not limited by city, county, or state borders or bound by political bias or party power.
Full explanation?
LEDE News is about the people of the region and the issues that mean the most to those who have chosen to make this area home. We work here, and we play here while living lives in a Rust Belt community that is collectively battling for a better tomorrow, and coverage of our past and present culture can assist the ongoing conversation about how best to move forward.
Providing additional insight about issues involving the projects along Interstate 70, the condition of secondary roads in the Northern Panhandle and throughout East Ohio, proposed economic development, local sports, the drug crisis, how best to help the homeless, population decline, and city survival is the goal, and we plan to accomplish that by discussing both the positives and the negatives with which we live. Lipsticking reality helps no one.
That brings us to the 2020 election cycle involving a municipal election in Wheeling, and primaries on the state and federal levels on May 12, and then the general election on November 5. Our goal at LEDE News, as far as the election cycle is concerned, is to offer each candidate’s platform, answers to critical questions in each race, and their opinions (not ours) about the future of their respective communities.
Maybe, just maybe, more people will vote after reading such coverage because at this time apathy has guided people away from the ballot box. Based on statistical information from the last 10 years, only half of those citizens eligible to vote register to do so, and usually about half of those folks go to the polls. That means a mere 25 percent of America’s population makes the most important decisions for the remaining 75 percent.
And that’s just wrong. Folks have died ugly deaths to protect that right.
Wheeling native Steve Novotney, a 28-year veteran of the journalism industry, serves as managing editor and writer for LEDE News. Novotney, a father of a son and daughter and married to his wife, Michelle, for 25 years, has worked in print, broadcast, and in digital media. For the past 12 years, Novotney has been heard on The Watchdog (98.1 FM WKKX and 97.7 FM WVLY) covering a plethora of local topics.
Erika Donaghy, a native of Steubenville and a current resident of Elm Grove in Wheeling WV, is IT & Web Director for LEDE News. She and her husband, Rob have been married for 12 years and are parents to son Liam age 8 and daughter Fiona age 6. Erika is a former chair of the Wheeling Arts and Cultural Commission, a professional artist with sculptural and pottery pieces for sale at Whippoorwill Woods and Waters Gallery in Morgantown, WV, as well as owning Tavi Design, and she and her husband own The Original PJ’s Pizza in New Martinsville, WV.
Some of our contributors include local folks like Joe Myers, Kim Adams-Francis, Bill Hanna, James Thorton, Jessica Rine from the United Way of the Upper Ohio Valley, the Vagabond Chef, Matt Welsch, and Amy Jo Hutchinson, and we welcome queries from other journalists and writers who would like to contribute to the content on LEDE News. Just email the queries to stevenovotney@LEDENews.com.
We are the people living here, so that immediately means we can tell better stories about this region than some website that ranks best burgers or pizza or wings or recreational amenities. Those things are what we have, what we eat, and what we enjoy. It is our definition.
This valley is ours and nobody else’s, and LEDE News will tell those stories and much more.
