Good Journalism Projects Aren’t Dead

I had hoped my project “The Broad Side” would live again. That’s TBD, but I hope the journalism ideas of others will move forward

I thought I had a good idea for an opinion journalism project — to publish a weekly newsletter to write and gather original opinion pieces by politically progressive women “of a certain age.” Women’s voices are in the minority in the world of opinion journalism, especially women over the age of 50. I’ve been writing opinion commentary for a long time, but I was seeing fewer and fewer smart, politically interested women doing the same.

I had hoped that being a part of the CUNY Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program would help me hone the idea of reestablishing “The Broad Side” into a productive one, especially one that would tackle the false notion that only op-ed commentary of younger generations was worthy of helping to influence our political world. But it turns out even people in an already established online community have mixed feelings about wanting “more.”

I did the research about community and potential readers. Reactions were all over the place, from “who would read anything by a bunch of gray haired old ladies in tennis shoes” (not exactly how I see myself or the women I thought could be part of my…