FutureHeights doubles down on the Heights Observer

With local papers around the country folding or being subsumed into large national publications, a free, vibrant and community-sourced publication like the Heights Observer is increasingly rare.

The Observer’s ability to buck the national trend is a testament to the quality of our local community, and to the many thoughtful and talented people and businesses in Cleveland Heights and University Heights who contribute content for and place ads in each issue of the publication.

Reciprocally, the Observer is itself a critical community asset and bulwark against the erosion of local print media that has been so common elsewhere. It is an invaluable tool for sustaining the passionate local dialogue, individual and group activism and public engagement which sit at the heart of our diverse and engaged community.

With this in mind, FutureHeights, the Observer’s publisher, is proud to share that we are doubling down on our investment in the Heights Observer as a critical pillar of FutureHeights’ mission as your local nonprofit community development corporation. 

In recent months, FutureHeights and the dedicated Observer staff have been working through a multi-component plan to strengthen the paper’s existing foundations while improving and expanding the mediums through which you can access and engage with the paper. 

If you are one of the many dedicated readers of the Heights Observer who likes to grab a physical copy, you can rest assured that we will continue to offer it in businesses and community spaces, and we are looking to expand distribution locations. Additionally, for subscribers, you can have the print edition mailed to your home. On top of this, we are rolling out a completely new and modernized website for readers and contributors alike. While the Observer has many strengths, its web and digital presence has not been one of them.

The new website, which we hope to launch this month, will allow those who consume their news in a digital format to access the Heights Observer in a more modern and accessible way. It will also improve the ability of the Observer to reach the community via social media. In a world where consumption of news is increasingly centralized and dominated by the use of sleek digital apps from large entities and via stories seen in the feeds of social media platforms, this necessary investment in our digital footprint will safeguard and expand the relevance and reach of the paper for years to come. 

For many current and future contributors of content to the Heights Observer, the new website will help to improve and streamline the process of submitting and managing content for publication online and in print. Supporting the breadth of contributor engagement through the updated website experience will be critical to further expanding the diversity of thought and coverage we can achieve. In the coming months, we will be holding contributor sessions to engage existing contributors and seek expanded participation, including walk-throughs of the updated process for submissions via the new website.

There has never been a better time to protect and level up this important conduit for local news and community dialogue, and we at FutureHeights and the Heights Observer hope these investments can help us all rise to the occasion together. 

If you would like to support the Heights Observer’s mission and expansion, please consider becoming a contributor or making a donation to help us sustain and improve this important and rare community asset.