With everything happening in the world, local journalism remains a tenant of connection in communities. If anything, it’s more important than ever, according to 2023 Western Washington University visual journalism graduate Sam Kristofferson.

Kristofferson takes this appreciation for local journalism into his role as the Editor-in-Chief (EIC) at My Bellingham Now (MBN), a Whatcom-County-based publication.

“I think a lot of folks are starting to forget where they’re from or where they live and forgetting to check in on their neighbors,” Kristofferson said. “Local news is one of the best ways to keep tabs on what’s happening in this community.”

Kristofferson celebrated one year as the EIC in December 2024, but when he first found the job listing, the website hadn’t even launched yet.

“I actually spent the summer after graduating college, just enjoying Bellingham summer and not being too stressed to find anything. I was selling honey for a local beekeeper in Ferndale and just having fun,” Kristofferson said. “When I was ready to settle down, just a couple months after graduating, I was looking, and I noticed that there was a job opening here. It was for this website called My Bellingham Now. It didn’t even exist when I Googled it.”

Despite its relatively new online footprint, MBN has been keeping Bellingham informed since 1928. Previously, it was called KGMI before the station, along with the rest of the Pacific Northwest Media Group, rebranded.

“It has covered a lot of big events that have happened here in Whatcom County, from everything from the big pipeline explosion that happened at Whatcom Creek to live coverage syndicated in on 9/11, to lots of other things that have happened in this area,” Kristofferson said.

MBN’s goal is to combine radio with new types of online content to provide free local news. Kristofferson said they are going beyond just checking a police scanner.

“We’re contacting city and county and state officials. We frequently just meet with those folks to maintain relations,” he said. “[We] have become, in the last year, a place where folks know that they can go, if it’s either online or on the app, to find out what’s going on in their area.”

MBN works with multiple Western graduates. Kristofferson said he is proud to attend Western, where he took the storytelling skills learned in the classroom into the newsroom.

“I think that’s the biggest thing that I took away from my degree,” he said. “I considered myself a storyteller going into college when I started at Western in 2021, but by the time I left, I was even more confident in my skills as a storyteller.”

Now, he takes those storytelling instincts to a broadcast format.

“When I first started working here, I had this empty whiteboard,” Kristofferson said. “I decided by the end of my first week I wanted to fill it up with ideas of things that I wanted to have on the website.”

The first idea Kristofferson wrote down was “We Are Whatcom,” a segment that highlights an individual or duo at a local business or nonprofit. With the help of fellow Western graduate Ellie Coberly and former Western intern Thalia Coulter, “We Are Whatcom” launched and goes live every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

“I feel like us as interviewers, and as journalists, are able to walk away from these interviews with a smile on their face,” he said.

It’s not just features. MBN also covers important civic issues occurring in the community. They were some of the first reporters to visit the homeless encampment behind the Walmart before it was cleared in November 2024, Kristofferson said.

“That was an eye-opening experience because I never walked through a homeless encampment before. We got to see the severity of it and the conditions in which these folks are living,” he said. “To be able to get back in that warm car and drive away was really hard to see. So, I’m really proud of that story.”

Kristofferson, along with the rest of the MBN team, continues to provide Whatcom County with free news. Even for newsworthy events that haven’t hit the website yet, staff members are willing to answer questions from people who call or email.

“I think it’s just the coolest thing to be able to come to work every day and provide free local news and be supported by local businesses,” Kristofferson said. “To be able to do that, it’s a privilege.”