On Feb. 19, the Tenderloin Voice — a new publication based in the Tenderloin — released its first issue. Journalists Noah Arroyo and Laura Wenus, alongside organizer Daphne Magnawa, founded the Tenderloin Voice in early 2026 to give neighborhood residents impartial and hyperlocal news about the community.

The founders hoped the Voice would let Tenderloin residents hold unbiased conversations about people living in the neighborhood. “We were in this neighborhood asking people what kind of news, what kind of information, what kind of media they would want for almost eight months before we started publishing any articles,” Wenus said in an interview with The Urban Legend. “We were just listening to what people want to see and to read and possibly hear and watch.”

Mainstream media can misrepresent or sensationalize crimes in the Tenderloin. “We don’t always have crimes here; it’s not as often as the news writes it to be,” said Shuhua Chen ’29, who lives in the Tenderloin. “People associate people of color with crimes because they’re unfamiliar with diversity in neighborhoods and with people coming from a low-income background [or] who are migrants.” 

The founders of the Tenderloin Voice received positive reactions to the first release of their publication. “People were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the idea of a publication like this coming to the Tenderloin. They told us repeatedly, … ‘We would like to see something other than crime and grime coverage of the Tenderloin,’” Wenus said. 

Publications such as the Tenderloin Voice are reshaping how people perceive neighborhoods in the city. “The problem is when people go to only one news source and use that as their truth. Then they’re blindsided, … or [they] just deny … any other truths that are out there,” said Spanish teacher Raina Mast, who writes for local publications, including Broke Ass Stuart.

Juan Gonzales founded El Tecolote, a local newspaper in the Mission, with the goal of moving away from the sensationalism of more popular newspapers. “Most of the mainstream publications will admit that they don’t have the staffing to really dedicate someone whose beat is the Mission, for example. So, as a result, what you’ll get is a story that’s more [of], ‘if it bleeds, it leads,’” Gonzales said in an interview with The Guardsman.

Arroyo, Wenus and Magnawa also founded News Relay Network, which publishes and prints the Tenderloin Voice. “The idea is that News Relay Network will be a sort of hub from which other newsrooms are launched with the same idea,” Wenus said. “[We’re] a newsroom that takes its cues for what to publish from the community as a whole.”

Local news can encourage people to participate more actively in their communities. “[You] can be … writing about news, asking questions and interviewing other people,” Mast said. “We all can do that, and it just creates these connections that shouldn’t just be reserved for reporters. Sharing knowledge should be happening in schools. It should be happening in the parking lot of a gas station.