It’s the end of another calendar year, and for us at The Coronado News, that means taking time to reflect on all of the stories we’ve covered in 2025.
With each story, it becomes exceedingly more clear that fair, accurate and balanced community journalism is so important — and that’s what we strive to produce every single day.
Thank you for reading our stories, answering our questions and sharing bits and pieces of your own stories. Know that fairly reporting on the community is a job we do not take lightly.
Now, here are some reflections on community journalism from our two dedicated full-time reporters, Julieta Soto and Madeline Yang.
Julieta Soto
When I was asked, “What experience in 2025 showed you the importance of community journalism?,” I immediately thought of a story published in May.
During that time, we learned of the passing of the late Andrew Graham Lounsbury, or rather, a legend known as “Elevator Elvis,” who impacted the community for decades and whose loss was deeply felt.
I took on this reporting project with great curiosity, and with each person I interviewed, I learned that Lounsbury influenced people in the community and beyond.
The anecdotes my sources shared about Lounsbury reminded me that personal experience contributes heavily to the reporting process and allows for a meaningful exchange of information.
To me, reporting in Coronado means finding and arranging the moving puzzle pieces of topics that matter to the community. I aim to deliver stories that inform as well as capture moments that shape the city’s long-standing and influential history.
The time I spent learning about Lounsbury reinforced the importance of each person’s contributions to society and the lasting difference one can make in the lives of others.
Today, Lounsbury’s love for the Hotel del Coronado remains alive in Coronado, home to his living influence on the world.
I feel so blessed for the opportunity to embark on another year of community journalism. To the entire Coronado community, THANK YOU for another year of storytelling!
I am very grateful and honored for each day I get to be a reporter, capturing the stories of people and events that shape Coronado, embedded into the city’s soul for generations.
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
¡Les deseo una Feliz Navidad y próspero año nuevo!
Madeline Yang
A lot has happened this year in the political and social world of the United States. Sometimes, people – including myself – read the headlines and listen to the commentaries and think that it will never affect us.
For me, that’s how it’s been for basically my entire life up until now. Executive orders, assembly bills, natural disasters, those happen outside of my world and outside of my life.
Right?
I’ve covered a good amount of local news this year that have reflected situations on a national level.
And I’ve learned that I am indeed not right.
I don’t work for large media outlets like the New York Times or BBC, but I’ve realized the importance of community journalism in relation to world events.
When I wrote about DEI rollbacks and Black History Month, the city was going through its own version of these events.
Federal orders to deport certain people were happening in San Diego and in Coronado.
The island’s own firefighters were sent to help fight the Los Angeles fires that happened at the beginning of this year.
Proposals by the Trump administration to decrease the Department of Veterans Affairs workforce brought about a rally in Coronado in support of veterans.
What happens in Washington, D.C., what happens in Sacramento, what happens in Los Angeles, that all happens in Coronado. The island and the people on it are a microcosm of what is being shown on national television.
Coronado is not immune to the world.
Community journalism matters just as much because what happens on a federal level, happens on a local level. And it’s extremely valuable to realize the weight of decisions happening across the country – because it’s happening to us, too.
I learned, through another year of being a local journalist, that I am affected by what’s happening in the world. I am not as far removed as I once thought I was.
And through community journalism, I’ve learned that I, and everyone on this island, has a voice too – and it deserves to be heard.
