Digital news startup launches in Roanoke

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – As newspapers have faced financial challenges and cutbacks, digital news startups have sprung up across the country. Very soon, Roanoke could have a couple of its own.

Henri Gendreau covered public safety and higher education for the Roanoke Times.

Laid off with other newspaper staffers in April, he’s now the driving force behind a new digital news startup.

“What’s launching this week will be ‘The Roanoke Rambler,” Gendreau told WDBJ7.

That Roanoke will soon see Gendreau’s start-up, or another digital news site now under development, comes as no surprise to Rick Edmonds, Media Business Analyst for the Poynter Institute.

“This is a huge trend all across the country,” Edmonds said in an interview Tuesday morning.

“To state the obvious, these journalists want to keep being journalists,” Edmonds said. “And this is a vehicle to do it.”

‘The Roanoke Rambler’ is a weekly newsletter delivered to subscribers by email.

It will include local coverage, investigative journalism and literary content, including poetry, short stories and essays.

“I think ‘The Roanoke Rambler’ will be successful if it can tell some really great stories, and if some of those stories have a real impact in the community,” Gendreau said.

The website is now live, and the first edition of ‘The Roanoke Rambler’ will arrive Wednesday morning.

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