McClatchy, Google to launch site covering Youngstown

In late September, McClatchy and Google will launch their Mahoning Matters site, which covers Ohio’s Mahoning Valley, including Youngstown and Warren. The area’s Vindicator newspaper closed in August.

Mahoning Matters is part of The Compass Experiment, a local news laboratory founded by McClatchy and Google’s Local Experiments Project.

“Our name reflects both what we'll cover and what we believe: The Mahoning Valley matters. Youngstown matters. Local news matters,” said an announcement on the site’s homepage.

The Compass Experiment will use Village Media’s digital publishing platform in the Youngstown effort, its first new digital news site.

Mark Sweetwood, who was managing editor of The Vindicator for over ten years, has been named editor of Mahoning Matters. Also onboard are two reporters from the Vindicator: Justin Dennis and Jess Hardin. 

Todd Franko, the former editor of The Vindicator, was named director of local sustainability and development for Report For America, The Business Journal, based in Youngstown, reports. Report For America is “a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities,” according to its website.

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