We started L.A. Material because we love Los Angeles. Our city is one of the most fascinating in the world — a glorious, ludicrous marvel. It can feel like the best or the worst version of the future, depending on the day. And it can also feel fragmented, and maddeningly difficult to navigate or comprehend.

And so we’re building a digital news outlet that aims to make Los Angeles legible. We’ll bring you newsletters, stories, podcasts, videos, forums, events and other things that help you understand this place and plug into it. No matter what your relationship is to Los Angeles, our job is to make you feel more informed about and electrified by the city. We want to deliver jolts of clarity about what’s happening, why — and why it matters.

Our work is independent, non-partisan, and animated by an abiding obsession with what makes this city great and what’s at stake when it falters. We’re beholden only to our audience. We take both rigorous reporting and good stories very seriously.

We also believe that — with the right approach — local media can be a sustainable business. And that sustainability is vital. The press isn’t really free until it can pay its own way.

Which is why we’re counting on support from you, and from other people who care about L.A. as much as we do. You are by far the most essential element of this project, and we aspire to make work so distinctive, captivating and useful to you that you are excited to subscribe — because you find what we make valuable, and because you want ambitious journalism to thrive here.

That means we’ll give you as many points of connection to our work as possible. Talk with us on our forums. Submit your questions in a voicemail. Hang out with us at events. Please send us your best tips, favorite shortcuts, strip mall secrets, notes on the meals you are dreaming of and the foundational questions about our city that frustrate and inspire you the most.

We want to see as much of you as we can, and we always want to hear from you about how we’re doing or what you’d like to see next.

Our Independence

L.A. Material is a privately held, for-profit news organization. The company is owned by its founders, its founding employees, and a small group of individual investors. Our investors are friends, family and community members who care about the future of journalism and about Los Angeles. They do not direct our news decisions.

We maintain strict separation between funding and coverage. Investors and business partners do not preview, approve or veto our journalism, and we do not tailor stories to please them. When a story involves one of our investors or business partners, we disclose that relationship to readers.

Contact: [email protected]