Today we’re bringing you behind the scenes of 6AM City, the parent company of LALtoday. 👋

While Katelyn + Rilee are the boots on the ground here in Lakeland, we are supported by a team that is 50+ deep. These individuals are our bench strength — they allow us to focus on helping you stay informed about the most important news and events of the day in Lakeland, while they worry about, well… everything else. 👀

This allows us to listen to, learn about, and share the type of content that educates, activates, and provides value to our audience that is now 35K daily subscribers strong — thanks to readers like you.

(#FlashbackFriday to when LALtoday launched in Sept. 2018 as 6AM City’s fifth market. Started from a startup now we’re here.)

LALtoday’s 7 current sister cities are spread out across other metros that are experiencing many of the same growth trajectories, opportunities, and excitement. And we’re getting even more sister cities. 🗺️

Last week, 6AM City announced an ambitious plan to grow to 24 total markets by the end of 2021. These cities include:

Boston, MA (BOStoday)
Portland, OR (PDXtoday)
Seattle, WA (SEAtoday)
San Diego, CA (SDtoday)
Sacramento, CA (SACtoday)
San Jose, CA (SJCtoday)
Louisville, KY (LOUtoday)
Lexington, KY (LEXtoday)
Kansas City, MO (KCtoday)
Richmond, VA (RICtoday)
Madison, WI (608today)
Indianapolis, IN (INDYtoday)
Fort Worth, TX (FTWtoday)
San Antonio, TX (SATXtoday)

In addition to these just-announced 14 markets, we plan to crowdsource 2 additional markets through our PickMyCity™ initiative, in which interest from the public — plus local economic developers, investors, advertisers, talent + publishers — will help us choose the remaining 2 cities to launch in 2021.

Why this matters here in LAL:

We will be stronger and better equipped with more players, firepower, and the ability to bring you an even better product and experience each day.

We work hard to keep this product 100% free. That won't change. We’ll continue to bring value to your day by pointing you in the right direction. Each and every day, we'll aggregate, curate, narrate + facilitate the most important conversations, with the manpower supported by our advertising partners.

We will, however, ask for some help from you:

If you know anyone in these cities who would enjoy our product, please share this story using the buttons below and tell people why they should sign up (read: why they’ll be better off with a product like this).
We are hiring Editors (just like us) in all of these cities — so if you know smart, talented, plugged-in folks who would like to join our team, please share this with them. We appreciate your help.

Thank you for waking up early with us each + every day, Lakeland. Now, another cup of coffee. ☕