Erica Rucker has spent nearly a decade writing about arts and culture in Louisville. She wrote primarily for alt-newspaper LEO Weekly until early this year.
Her newest work lives on the Louisville Independent (LIO News), where Rucker is the editor-in-chief and founder.
LPM’s Giselle Rhoden spoke with Rucker about her new online community-centered platform and her plans to write more for Louisville.
This interview was edited for clarity and length.
What inspired you to create the Louisville Independent?
It's a news site right now. It's sort of a sandbox. So what inspired me was just looking around the media landscape and realizing that despite us having a big daily [newspaper], it's not owned or operated here. There are writers that live here and in the community, but the decisions that are made are made by somebody who doesn't live in the community. It's not endemic to Louisville, it's nationwide.
So I just thought it's time for people in their community to get news and information from people in their community who understand the nuances of the community. So there's a couple of writers who will join me here and there to publish things.
Your news site, the Louisville Independent Observer, sounds similar to another LEO in town, the Louisville Eccentric Observer. Was that intentional?
First it was a bit of spite, but really now, I think my focus has moved far away from LEO. It just so happens that now the acronym is sort of the same or similar, but it is Louisville Independent, and the reason that I chose that is because I was very intentional about this being something that was from the soil of Louisville, and for the people of Louisville. The funny thing is it has been an idea in my head for a few months, even before I left LEO Weekly. Because I was like, “This is just not what I wanted and it's not what I felt.” I didn't feel genuine, and I felt like I was just not able to give my best. I just want to share local information from local voices with local people.
It's like when it comes from the soil of your community, it matters. And I think that's what LEO weekly had built over 30 years, it came from our soil. It mattered, and then it became a product. And that is sort of where, for me, it fell off. It still exists. People are still working hard at it. It wasn't for me anymore. And so for a few months before that, I had the idea I should do something else.
How is the Louisville Independent different from the other news in the city?
It will offer a perspective made by people who understand Louisville organically. The decisions made won't be because I need to fulfill a web quota or I have to satisfy a corporate ownership. The decisions will be made because that's what I think is best for my community, or that's what I think my community might want to see or hear.
I really just got frustrated in my previous role, about the decisions being made just for traffic. To some degree I understand, because the traffic can run revenue, but also I think that I'm not interested in revenue. It's really a labor of love right now.
So. Yeah, I'm not driven by the same goals as the other news organizations. My goal is my community. Because we are independent, the writers are also independent. And so they can solicit for their own payments. If you have a sub stack, or your Venmo, you can add that to your stories and ask for your own money. If a writer has something they want to write and they want to share and promote, then I feel like Louisville Independent is like a sandbox for them. If you've got a perspective on something that you feel like you want to share, and you don't feel like you've had a place to do it, reach out.
You're basically your own editor-in-chief now. So what has it been like to be there again?
It's not that much different, other than producing the work and deciding what goes in. But the fun of it, for me, has been really trying to dig down deep into what is happening, not just in Louisville's underground. I'm passionate about what the community gets from itself. Its voice is important in the landscape. When we're looking at the nation, we see the destruction of news and media around the country. And I don't think that's accidental. I think it's systematic in that it's been coming for a long time, just like some of the other things that we see in the government. So I think that it's really up to the communities themselves to dig in their heels and say, “You know what, I'm not going to let you tell me my story. We're going to tell you my story. I'm going to take ownership of that story.”
Where do you see the Louisville Independent heading for you?
I'm a person who cares about words, and I care about Louisville, so I care about what I'm saying to people, and that for me, what I'm saying has to feel like what my community needs. It shouldn't feel like I'm trying to get their money or gimmick them in some way to make them click through something, because it generates revenue like it just doesn't feel good to do that. I know it's necessary on some level, that I'm not debating. It just doesn't feel good when all of the s*** that's happening in the world is really, on some level, a result of people not getting good information and not getting information from people who actually care about that.
I don't know what the trajectory of Louisville Independent is going to be. My hope is that it becomes an organic sandbox for little local writers who really are writing about local things and not trying to fill some sort of digital quota to make money to pay overhead.
This story has been updated to include audio of the interview.
