Daniel Webster is a tall, angular young man who exudes a sense of purpose. One afternoon in his studio apartment along Front Street, he described a publication that he’s been raising money to produce this fall.
“Journalism isn’t my profession,” the 25-year-old said, relaxing on his sofa. “It’s always been a sincere interest.”
Sincere enough that this Messiah College graduate – where he earned a degree in English followed by a graduate degree in creative writing at Vermont’s Bennington College – pursed an idea, a journal capturing the people of the land where he lives.
His pursuit brought him in 2011 to create “Local: A Quarterly of People and Places.” The pitch on its website – www.localmag.org – is: “Local is seeking out the overlooked American narrative, chronicling one town per issue.”
It follows in the tradition of such periodicals as the Utne Reader. Webster explained, “We do everything a traditional magazine does – investigative reporting, humor columns, features, etcetera – just from the vantage point of a single place.”
In June, Webster and his editorial team raised more than $20,000 on Kickstarter, a web-based campaign program to help fund creative projects. With the money, Webster hopes to launch the first of four issues per year in October.
Eventually, said Webster, “We’d like enough advertising to support us.”
The issues also include a special section called Annexed, which looks at the state and region Local is reporting from. Webster said the initial coverage area is Philadelphia, Williamsport, and Harrisburg, but the aspirations are national.
The first issue will feature Pennsylvania’s Jersey Shore, a misnomer of name for a town nestled in the mountains of the Keystone State. Webster said the town has a history of rich characters such a Prince Farrington, a popular bootlegger in the 1920s.
“They said he was one of the best whiskey makers on the East Coast,” Webster said, chuckling.
As with all places Local will feature, Webster said, the Jersey Shore story delves deeper; how the community began, what life is truly like there, its relevance to American culture. “To show there’s a lot going on, you got to dig a little bit,” he said.
Local is a collaborative effort done voluntarily.
The editorial team, 10 friends and associates, come from varied backgrounds: Webster, the editor-in-chief, is sustainability projects coordinator at Dickinson College, while Allison Davis, the managing editor, is an editorial assistant at Elle Magazine.
As a new journal in search of America, Local’s mission statement, here in part, is simple: “We will explore why Main Street still matters, communicate curiosities without cynicism, and report on serious, germane issues, preserving heritage where it’s dying and thriving.”
Visit Local at www.localmag.org.
