Copper Beacon will deliver high-quality journalism featuring diverse voices and deep research to the residents of Houghton County and the surrounding area. With ethics, accessibility, and media education held as core values, we will lead the way for the modernization of news production in the Upper Peninsula.

High-quality – The contextualization and truthfulness of stories come before the speed or volume of content creation.

Diverse – Including multiple voices in stories, selecting from interested parties with varying views and backgrounds, hiring diverse staff to ensure stories that matter to a variety of communities are covered

Deep research – Beyond Wikipedia, Facebook, and Google, using original data, exclusive interviews, community feedback, and primary sources

Ethics – SPJ ethics in short: Seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently, be accountable and transparent

Accessibility – Easy-to-navigate, low-cost or free, highly available, closed captioning on video content and transcriptions of audio content whenever possible

Modernization – digital delivery, eschewing “both-siderisms”, engaging more directly with the reading community, realigning to ethics rather than profitability

Viewing journalism as a service, rather than a product.

Copper Beacon was initially launched in January 2021 under the working title of “Late Edition” on Substack by Joshua Vissers.

Shortly thereafter, board members were recruited in order to become a locally-focused nonprofit news source, and the name “Copper Beacon” was chosen to replace “Late Edition.”

Working with New York-based Lawyers for Reporters, the nonprofit corporation and tax-exempt status were completed late in 2022.

Copper Beacon launched this independent website in January 2023, and continues to work toward increasing media literacy and quality local journalism in the Keweenaw area.

Copper Beacon purchases our news stories from contracted freelancers, and holds exclusive copyright for 90 days after the date of publication.

If you’re interested in republishing one of our stories, please reach out to us at editor@copperbeacon.org.

Bruce Johanson

Henry Snapp

Jennifer Donovan

JuxtaPrax Sprague

Lily Venable

Mark Wilcox

Rachel Dick

Sydney Wilmot

Bruce Johanson

Chris Jaehnig

Daver Karnosky

Joan Schumaker Chadde

Marcia Goodrich

Miriam Pickens