One of the things I’m most proud of about The Beacon is that we’ve quietly become infrastructure for a lot of other people’s work.

In 2025 alone, 185 different credible information sources published Beacon stories and delivered them to their audiences. They included local newspapers, radio stations, TV stations, digital outlets and national platforms. When we do our jobs well, our work shows up in other newsrooms, in community conversations and in rooms where real decisions get made.

We’ve also launched Documenters, which trains and pays community members to cover public meetings and civic processes. 

That work is part of a larger idea I talk about a lot: building a people-powered public record that’s fair, careful and grounded in real facts. We want what’s happening in our communities to be documented in a way that’s useful, trustworthy and not so easily dismissed.

All of this means The Beacon is in a different place than we were even a year ago.

Our journalism is more widely used. The stakes of the stories we’re covering are higher. The responsibility we carry as a newsroom is heavier. We’re leaning into the work that sits at the center of people’s lives : public health, workforce and economic impact, accessibility and the public-interest decisions that shape whether Kansas Citians can stay, build and thrive.

That’s not abstract. It shows up in how health systems work, how jobs move or disappear, how housing and transportation connect people to opportunity and how public systems succeed or fail the people who rely on them. Our job is to make those systems visible and understandable, and to make sure they’re part of a public record people can actually use.

That’s why today, we’re opening the search for our next editor-in-chief.

This is a senior leadership role. The editor-in-chief will lead our newsroom, set editorial priorities and help shape how our journalism evolves. They will work closely with me and the team on strategy, culture and standards. And they’ll be responsible for making sure our reporting stays accurate, fair, independent and deeply grounded in the communities we serve.

They will also help guide how we work with partners across the region. Our republishing network, collaborations with other newsrooms and shared projects are now a core part of how our journalism reaches people. That’s not separate from the work. It is the work.

Community-powered reporting will continue to be central to our strategy, including Documenters and other ways we bring community knowledge into our coverage. We believe journalism is stronger when it reflects the realities of the people who live here and treats them as participants in the civic record, not just subjects of stories.

There are a few words that matter a lot to us at The Beacon: access and opportunity. We don’t believe the middle of the country is flyover country. We believe Kansas Citians deserve clear, fair, independent reporting on the issues that shape their health, their work and their economic future.

We’re looking for a partner in this work. Someone who wants real responsibility, real impact and the chance to help build something that lasts. This is not a caretaker role. It’s a builder’s job, at a moment when the work is getting bigger and more consequential.

If this sounds like you, I hope you’ll apply. And if it sounds like someone you know, I hope you’ll share this with them.

👉 Apply here for editor-in-chief

— Stephanie