Although these neighbouring communities are rapidly changing, they remain underrepresented in traditional local media.
In co-creation with local residents, we aim to document their lived experiences in the suburban areas around Iași. We want to address challenges such as infrastructure and housing, while also highlighting the people and organisations that contribute to improving these communities.
As our target audience is younger and relies on Instagram, we will publish a series of 12 Instagram feature posts for each of the three municipalities. These posts will also appear in a dedicated section of our weekly newsletter.
The company was founded in June 2021, when Alex Enășescu received seed investment from Substack to launch a local newsletter in his hometown. Iași is a city of 500,000 people, including the wider metropolitan area, in Moldova—one of the poorest and most disadvantaged regions in the European Union.
Goals (Expected) of the Project
Iași is the third-largest city in Romania, and its metropolitan area is among the fastest-growing communities in the country, with a population of over 75,000. Most of these residents live in just three municipalities: Miroslava, Valea Lupului, and Rediu—villages that have developed into suburban municipalities within the larger Iași metropolitan area.
Many residents live in the suburbs but work in the city and send their children to city schools. However, urban development and the concerns of suburban residents are often overlooked by mainstream local media in Iași.
We aim to bridge that gap by connecting with these adjacent audiences—first by understanding their information needs and interests, and then by creating content formats that reflect how our audience consumes media today. Our goal is to engage younger audiences, who primarily use Instagram, and to encourage greater civic participation among suburban residents.
We believe that a series of weekly carousels and reels focused on the suburbs of Iași is the most direct way to meet the need for community-centred local journalism at the margins of the city.
