12/31/2025
A message from our founder:
Over the past year, this page has more than doubled in size! Seeing how much it’s grown made me want to pause and share the story behind The Murray Sentinel – and why I care so deeply about keeping it going. So, here’s the short version of a long story…
This didn’t begin as a newsroom or even as a plan. It started in April 2020 as a list of COVID case numbers on my phone. Then a spreadsheet. Then graphs. Then questions. When the information being shared locally didn’t line up, I started requesting records and posting what I found so people could make informed decisions for themselves. That page – Calloway COVID-19 Count – became a trusted place where I shared local data and trends at a time when clear information was hard to find.
As I kept digging – first around public health data and later while covering local institutions more broadly – it became clear the problem wasn’t limited to a single moment or issue. There was a real gap in consistent, independent local news coverage. In July 2023, The Murray Sentinel began publishing with a simple goal: show up, ask hard questions, read the documents, attend the meetings and explain what’s happening in a way people can actually understand.
What I didn’t fully appreciate at the beginning was how consuming this would become. Showing up consistently means reading what others don’t, sitting through court proceedings most people never see, staying when meetings drag on, circling back when answers are incomplete and sticking with stories long after the headlines move on. For a long time, I did all of that as a volunteer, on top of another job, because I believed – and still believe – this community deserves it.
Today, The Murray Sentinel is a nonprofit, community-supported – and award-winning – news organization and a member of the Kentucky Press Association and the Institute for Nonprofit News, organizations that uphold standards for community-focused reporting. Everything we publish is free to read, but producing it isn’t free. And right now, we’re in the final stretch of our year-end fundraiser, Truth Takes a Village.
If you’ve found value in this work – if you’ve learned something, felt better informed or appreciated having someone in the room asking questions – I’m asking you to help sustain it. Gifts made now are matched, which means your support goes twice as far.
This started with neighbors needing clear information because it mattered. It’s grown because people believed it was worth protecting. And with your help, it can keep going.
I care deeply about protecting this work, and I’m grateful to those who do, too. I don’t take that support – or this responsibility – lightly.
-Jessica❤️
