About Us
Thank you for your interest in our Hampton Roads community. Spotlight News is a new organization founded by BA Ciccolella and Frank Connelly, with help from the rest of the old AltDaily theatre reviewing staff, especially Chris Bernhardt, Ali Pantas, and Jimmy Dragas.
We planned to start out covering mainly the performing arts scene in Hampton Roads (as that is what we all have expertise in), but then COVID sort of put a wrench in our "use the reviews we already have scheduled to slowly add content to the website" plans. We started expanding our coverage earlier than anticipated as we felt it was still important to tell the stories of our community, especially when a good portion of that community was not able to do the work that they were so used to offering.
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Interested in getting involved? We are looking for your skills! We have every intention of expanding into all aspects of our Hampton Roads community. If you are a writer who would like to join our mission of furthering Hampton Roads community journalism, send us a message! If you are a writer who does any other kind of content, contact us as well- we want to amplify all kinds of Hampton Roads community voices!
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At the moment, we are a completely volunteer organization, though we would love to raise enough funds to be able to cover operating expenses, and possibly even expand on to paying our writers and editors in more than just "exposure". If you are a granting entity or just a person with some spare cash on hand who would like to talk more about our mission, again, hit us up! We are currently registered with the SCC of Virginia, officially gained our 501c3 status in July of 2020, and are working on the rest of the registrations and such needed to be able to apply for grants and solicit donations.
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​Wondering how you can help support us right now? Well, step one is getting out the word to the world that we are here! Please follow us on Facebook, invite your friends to do so, and share our site and our social posts far and wide!
Mission:
The mission of Spotlight News is to create, enhance, and support local independent media through arts- and community-focused journalism in the Hampton Roads area.