News organizations across the country continue traditions of charitable work around the holidays. Editor & Publisher reached out across our network to learn about their holiday giving traditions. Below you’ll find a sampling of responses, which range from hands-on toy delivery to special editorial content highlighting nonprofit organizations in their communities.
Santa’s “nice” list always includes many news organizations and their employees. And it certainly includes the Goodfellows from Detroit.
The Detroit Goodfellows collect money to ensure every child has Christmas presents. Their goal this year is to raise $1.4 million to support the distribution of 25,000 gift packages to less fortunate children ages 4-13. The packages are filled with necessities, such as underwear, socks, jeans, a sweatshirt, mittens and dental kits, along with other items, like books and dolls.
The charity’s origin traces back to The Detroit News. While a separate organization from the news brand, the 100-plus-year gift tradition began with hawking papers on the streets. It’s made a remarkable impact. Along with a strong media push and help from Detroit's police force, the spirit of giving has been contagious from one generation to the next.
The story begins in 1914 with a successful businessman, James Brady, who approached the managing editor of The Detroit News. He was inspired by an editorial cartoon depicting a well-to-do businessman carrying gifts for the poor, walking hand-in-hand with an impoverished newsboy dressed in rags. The cartoon, as the story goes, reminded him of himself as a boy. He, too, had been a newsboy.
Brady asked Detroit News Managing Editor E.J. Pipp how he could help children around the holidays, and Pipp suggested contacting the Detroit Newsboys Association, which consisted of a group of successful businessmen — former newspaper boys who’d sold papers on the street. Brady asked the group to join him on the street corners and sell papers to raise money so poor children would have gifts to open at Christmastime. They hoped to raise $400.
About 75 of the former newsboys raised more than $2,200. So began the tradition. Ten years later, they added dolls to the children's gifts, and to this day, dolls are hand-dressed by volunteers.
The Detroit Free Press joined in the fun. Selling special tabloid sections was “a huge way for us to raise money,” said Debbie Michelson, a third-generation Goodfellow and former board president who is the vice chair of a Detroit-area marketing agency, SMZ. People gave “anywhere from loose change to $5, $20, $50; and year after year, they knew that the Goodfellows were going to be on that corner. So, we would work with the newspaper, which was one of our largest fundraisers. Our biggest fundraisers were sales days.”
The pandemic caused the newspaper to stop publishing the special tabloid sections, and the tradition of selling papers on the street corners also came to an end, but the giving did not.
“We still have great relationships with the media,” Michelson said. “We have wonderful relationships with TV stations, the radio stations and the print partners, and they support us, whether it’s through interviews, or we’ll get some of our partners to run some digital ads for us.”
Many of the program’s most prominent supporters today were those who received Goodfellows packages as children. In addition to the Christmas gift program, Goodfellows also gives away about 1,000 pairs of shoes throughout the year; they provide opportunities for children to attend summer camps; they provide support for children to receive dental care; and they give a scholarship to at least one student to attend the Wayne State School of Journalism.
It is just one meaningful example of how the news community gives back at the holidays and year-round.
Edwards Group
For the past 25 years, Edwards Group Holdings — which operates newspapers and radio stations in three states — has been the backstop for all the charities that provide Christmas items for children in their communities. Over the past 25 years, no child in the county (up to 18 years old) has gone without a Christmas gift. During that time, Edwards Group ensured more than 30,000 children received a gift, thanks to $5 million in locally raised donations. The charity is a 501 (c) (3) called “Christmas for Kids.” It has a heart-warming story behind it.
“About 28 years ago, I stopped by the United Way office just a week before Christmas to see if they needed help fulfilling the Christmas wishes of the children on their list,” said Jerry Edwards, president and owner of Edwards Group. “When I walked in, the front desk was empty, but I heard someone crying in the back. Thinking someone was hurt, I went to check and found a woman sitting on the floor in tears. Her name was Joan Patterson.
“When I asked if she was hurt, she said no. … She explained that she still had over 300 children left without gifts and only $2,700 in donations to help them — that’s less than $10 per child. I introduced myself and told her not to worry — that we’d make it happen, even if I had to pay for it myself. I immediately called the newspaper, and we sent down a reporter and photographer. The next day, we ran a front-page story with the headline, ‘300 KIDS TO DO WITHOUT CHRISTMAS!’ alongside a photo of a single bag of toys sitting in an empty room. The community’s response was overwhelming. Within just two days, more than $25,000 was donated, along with hundreds of toys. One man even filled the bed of his F-150 truck with toys from Walmart and Kmart, saying he didn’t know what we needed, but wanted to help however he could. Thanks to the community’s generosity, every one of those 300-plus children had a Christmas that year.”
Years later, the United Way discontinued the program, but Edwards Group launched “Christmas for Kids” in its place, partnering with a local church. Later, other charities joined, including the Salvation Army, Toys for Tots and other local churches.
“Several years ago, after we finished giving out toys on Christmas Eve, one of ‘Santa’s Elves’ told us about a family who hadn’t signed up but was struggling,” Edwards recalled. “The volunteers quickly filled several bags of toys and delivered them. When they arrived, they discovered that the family they were looking for had moved — but another family with children the same ages was there, instead. The parents were sitting on the floor with their kids around a tiny Christmas tree, praying for help. The volunteers said it was one of the most moving moments they’d ever witnessed — seeing those children’s faces light up as their prayers were answered in real time. Moments like that remind us why we do this.”
Express News Group
Last year, Express News Group started a new series titled “Helping Hand,” which included a special section and an event focused on communities on Long Island’s East End. As part of this initiative, Express News Group also launched its “Holiday Express” fundraiser, raising money for local food pantries. It donated about $10,000 for the holidays. The group plans to run another special section in its Thanksgiving editions this year.
Sethre Media Group, Inc.
The folks at Sethre Media Group are particularly festive and generous around the holidays. The organization coordinates a Thanksgiving Day Turkey Run and collects donations for food pantries. It publishes a Small Business Saturday section, in which it gives away $1,000 in gift cards to 10 lucky winners. It publishes a Cabin Fever Word Search section full of local businesses and awards $300 to three winners.
“As a local, family-owned newspaper, we are in a unique position to feel personally connected to each of the communities and organizations we serve,” said Publisher Jason Sethre. “Of course, just like any other newspaper, we publish stories to create public awareness about organizations in need that serve people in our community. But with our readers, it seems like people want to be part of something. We strive to help people through reader engagement in various ways throughout the year.”
Some of their other generosity-related efforts include a Teacher of the Year honor and a breast cancer awareness publication for which half of the ad proceeds are gifted to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in New York.
Illinois Business Journal
The Illinois Business Journal produces a Spotlight feature section, called the “Giving Guide,” that highlights and promotes nonprofit organizations in the St. Louis Metro East region. The idea is to appeal to readers to donate to charities in the names of people who don’t want or need anything material for Christmas. Nonprofits can submit stories of up to 1,000 words, along with two or three images.
“It works a bit differently than our regular monthly spotlights, in that we solicit sponsors for the Spotlights rather than just selling the editorial/advertising combo space,” said Melissa Meske, managing editor. “Sponsors can purchase logo ads, where the advertisers’ company logos are attached to the featured Spotlights, accompanied by a line that says the companies are ‘proud sponsors of…’ Another way a company can ‘buy ad space’ is, of course, to pay for a place in the Spotlight, which features an advertorial story about a nonprofit organization of their choosing.”
The News-Gazette Corp.
The News-Gazette participates in a program called “Rockbridge Christmas Baskets,” which is a partnership with a local charity. Together, they provide food and gift packages to children of local families in need. Last year, News-Gazette distributed 1,900 boxes of food and 577 toy bags, helping 1,186 families and more than 3,400 individuals.
The newspaper, which has a print circulation of 5,100, asks its new and existing subscribers to donate to the charity through the paper and receive a year’s subscription in return. Last year, the paper raised nearly $10,000.
“This is a relatively low-income, rural area, and ‘Rockbridge Christmas Baskets’ has been helping local families for 78 years,” said Matt Paxton, publisher of The News-Gazette. “Hundreds of volunteers converge on a Saturday in December to pack boxes, choose toys for children and deliver the packages all over the county. We’re really gratified that more and more of our readers choose to contribute to this worthy local effort each year through our subscribe-and-donate program.”
InsideNoVa/Prince William
InsideNoVa/Prince William supports the Prince William Corps of the Salvation Army through an annual Christmas basket campaign. Through print and digital advertisements and news articles, the outlet encourages readers to donate to the Prince William Corps, and donors’ names are published (unless anonymity is preferred). The campaign was launched in 1972 by the publisher of the Potomac News, a former daily newspaper in the market. InsideNoVa picked it up in 2012 after the daily paper closed. In recent years, the campaign has raised as much as $24,000.
AFRO American Newspapers
Every year, Baltimore families send letters to the AFRO’s office requesting food, clothes and toys for their children. Afro Charities, established in 1963, acts as the fiscal sponsor for the drive. The tradition has served those in need for more than 50 years. Since 2024, it has partnered with Furman L. Templeton Preparatory Academy to serve its students.
TribLIVE
In the first full week of December, volunteers with Operation Santa Claus, a nonprofit organization set up by Trib Total Media, gather to pack a complete holiday meal along with a new or gently used children’s book for families with children. The TribLIVE initiative, launched in 1984, packs more than 2,500 grocery bags, with the help of local high schools and volunteers, for less fortunate families in the Southwestern Pennsylvania region. The bags include non-perishable items for a holiday meal and a small ham. TribLIVE also organizes a book drive to collect books to deliver with the grocery bags. Shop ‘N Save provides the groceries at cost, and the Salvation Army distributes the bags of groceries to the families. This year’s fundraising goal is $50,000.
Bob Miller has spent more than 25 years in local newsrooms, including 12 years as an executive editor with Rust Communications. Bob also produces an independent true crime investigative podcast called The Lawless Files.
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