LGBTQ+ outlet LOOKOUT aims to expand throughout the Southwest, and beyond

According to Nieman Lab, LOOKOUT, an Arizona nonprofit focused on LGBTQ+ journalism, is expanding into Colorado and throughout the Southwest. The outlet began four years ago as a Substack newsletter—a protest, really—started by investigative reporter Joseph Darius Jaafari after his mainstream newsroom resisted deeper LGBTQ+ coverage. Now it serves over fourteen thousand newsletter subscribers weekly, produces a quarterly magazine, and has won multiple journalism awards with a four-person newsroom and freelancers. Nieman Lab reports the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation is studying expansion potential into the Great Lakes, while co-founder Jake Hylton emphasizes the outlet will advance through community partnerships rather than waiting solely for philanthropic support—increasingly critical as anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric complicates fundraising.

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