For Immediate Release
September 29, 2020
Media contact: Charles Lenchner, charles@therealnews.com
Baltimore, MD The Real News Network (TRNN), an international nonprofit news project headquartered in Baltimore, today announced that Maximillian Alvarez, formerly an associate editor at The Chronicle Review, will serve as the new editor-in-chief for the organization. Additionally, TRNN announced the promotion of Lisa Snowden-McCray to managing editor and Baltimore editor.
TRNN’s mission is to center the stories and voices mainstream, for-profit media too often ignores or marginalizes, a mission that both Alvarez and Snowden-McCray have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to advancing.
Alvarez’s work at The Chronicle Review has focused on giving a platform to the people—like service workers and contingent faculty—left out of most conversations around higher education. His work as the founder and host of the Working People Podcast, produced in cooperation with In These Times, also focuses on amplifying excluded voices, bringing the ideas, analysis, and aspirations of members of the working class into a conversation around the economy that rarely makes space for them. As editor-in-chief, Alvarez will lead and direct the editorial activities of TRNN.
For Alvarez:
Traditionally, the lives, voices, struggles, dreams, and concerns of working people have been ignored, not only by the politicians we elect to serve us but by an elite media class that contributes daily to our collective disempowerment. They report on ‘politics’ like it’s a thing that only happens behind closed doors in D.C. or state capitals; they talk about stock prices and the bottom lines of corporations and their shareholders as if that’s the only part of ‘the economy’ that matters; they regularly regurgitate the talking points of warhawks and Wall Street, police departments and paid lobbyists. The rest of us, all the while, are treated as little more than idle spectators or mindless consumers, as if working people don’t have a stake in this world and what happens to it, as if working people don’t make the world itself run. But we have a chance to change that, to provide the media we all deserve; we have a chance to include and engage with the very people we’re trying to reach; we have a chance to provide a platform for those whose voices often go unheard among elite news media, and to report on the issues that matter to people, without being beholden to any corporate advertisers or political parties. I couldn’t be more excited to be taking this post at The Real News Network—and I couldn’t be more determined to face these fraught and fearful times head on—because they are doing that work, we are doing that work. We believe in this, and it shows in the work everyone at TRNN does and the commitment we all have. We need this kind of media now more than ever, and I’m fired the hell up to be making it with everyone at TRNN. Check us out—and join us!
Snowden-McCray, who will serve as managing editor and Baltimore editor, brings years of experience as a journalist and editor with Baltimore City Paper, the Baltimore Sun, as well as The Baltimore Beat, an alt-weekly she co-founded. TRNN’s physical footprint in Baltimore gives the organization both a unique perspective on national and international news and a unique set of responsibilities for critical, engaged, place-based local journalism, and Snowden-McCray’s deep experience covering the city will continue to be vital for TRNN’s local journalism as she moves into this expanded leadership role. For Snowden-McCray, “Baltimore is ground zero for so many of the battles we are fighting, including struggles over civil rights, housing, climate justice, and more. I’m honored and excited to be able to continue my work telling these stories.”
TRNN Executive Director John Duda said: “I am thrilled about the new leadership team here—in these dangerous times, independent, critical media committed to telling stories that advance racial and economic justice is more important than ever. Having Maximillian and Lisa on board to drive our coverage will be a crucial part of how we are delivering on that mission.”
TRNN is viewer and reader supported, funded entirely by donations from its audience and through other philanthropic support.
###
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
