Our mission:
To provide cross-cultural feature writing and bold investigative reporting in the Chico area of the Northern Sacramento Valley.
ChicoSol’s “border-crossing” journalism dates back 19 years to our founding, when we built a digital news platform that would provide stories that span cultural borders, including those related to race, ethnicity, immigration status, language and class. We examine how power and policy affect vulnerable communities and shine light on issues that are often overlooked by traditional media that are starved for resources.
ChicoSol’s in-depth coverage and fact-based investigative reporting adheres to the highest professional standards for accuracy and ethics.
Our reporting is designed to seek those who are accountable and those who can help find ways to address the community’s most vexing problems — and to keep the people of this region at the forefront of our work.
Engaging Butte County communities
As a trusted source of news and information, ChicoSol provides reporting to enlarge community discourse and mentorship to young journalists.
According to the Medill State of Local News Report 2025, 1,524 counties across the country have been left with only one remaining news source. The rate of newspaper closures “ticked up to 136 this past year, a rate of more than two per week,” the report says.
Since its 2007 founding, ChicoSol has been leading the way in developing a new model for local news delivery. ChicoSol was designed as a not-for-profit local news outlet and has been providing the community with coverage it would otherwise not have had for almost two decades.
Community-run, reader-supported
ChicoSol is accountable to its Butte County readers, not to corporate interests. Revenue provided by donations and fellowships fund reporting with almost no overhead. To become a donating member of the ChicoSol community supporting independent news, click here. A tax-deductible donation will help our effort to open a full-time salaried position.
Subscribe to our free newsletter
In 2025, we launched our weekly newsletter, The Little Sun, that highlights new stories. Subscribe here to get a weekly update to your inbox.
Commentary
As a nonprofit, ChicoSol does not endorse political candidates. We sometimes run guest commentaries that reflect the views of the author — not our organization. Write to ch**********@***il.com to inquire about submitting a guest commentary.
Guiding principles
- News is a public good that will be accessible to all community residents, not a product to be used for profit-making;
- Context, background and accuracy are key in quality reporting and more important than scoops;
- Fairness and balance will be provided through consideration of diverse and dissenting viewpoints;
- Our duty is to provide accurate and true information and to expose or correct when given misinformation;
- Fair pay for news reporting must be built into our business model; the lack of fair compensation has unjustly excluded too many people from journalism careers.
- Transparency with our readers is a top priority, including our use of evolving technology, ChicoSol’s financial backing and how we put together stories. We make ongoing efforts to be transparent on the website and at in-person gatherings.
- Editorial independence is crucial to our success. Read more here.
Rapid growth and re-launch
ChicoSol was launched by Henri Flores and Leslie Layton, initially serving as a bilingual classroom teaching tool. Leslie was an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Journalism at California State University, Chico, and a freelance writer. It rapidly evolved into a bridge between the campus and community and soon began publishing professional writers as well as student journalists on a digital platform.
We developed a readership in the community through a free subscription system, publishing stories in both English and Spanish and a paywall-free website that is accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Earlier this year, we re-launched with a new reader-friendly design and a more robust Spanish-language section.
With the addition of a full-time reporter in 2024 funded by the California Local News Fellowship program and successful community fundraising efforts, we now post three to four times a week. Our audience has grown to almost 50,000 monthly visitors.
Our stories have been reprinted with permission by the Chico News & Review (CNR), American Community Media and elsewhere. We’ve collaborated on projects with Pro Publica, Cal Matters and the CNR. We’re currently collaborating with community radio station KZFR on the weekly “Zephyr News” program. Email ch**********@***il.com with collaboration opportunities or for permission to reprint a ChicoSol story.
Public disclosure of governance
ChicoSol is a community-facing news organization operated under the legal direction of the North Valley Community Foundation, a registered 501(c) public benefit corporation in the State of California. ChicoSol depends largely on the tax-deductible donor contributions made to our North Valley Community Foundation (NVCF) fund to cover operating expenses and to provide stipends to contributing writers. While NVCF serves as our fiscal sponsor, we maintain full editorial independence within NVCF.
To view NVCF’s most recent tax (990) filings, click here.
As a non-profit newsroom dedicated to information equity, we have no private owners or corporate stakeholders. Our organizational strategy, editorial mission and financial operations are overseen by an independent, community-led advisory board that will act as our Board of Directors when we become an independent 501(C)3.
ChicoSol has filed Articles of Incorporation with the State of California under the name “Sol News.” Our application for 501(c)3 status is pending.
Our current advisory board:
• Leslie Layton, chair
• Nancy Park, treasurer
• Lindajoy Fenley, secretary
• Natalie Hanson, board member
• Forrest Hartman, board member
Recent awards
2026
ChicoSol was honored with nine awards in this year’s statewide contest sponsored by the California News Publishers Association (CNPA), plus a third place in a national contest.
- First place in CNPA’s Arts & Entertainment went to Leslie Layton’s “Debajito: a call to dance, a call to action“;
- Second places in CNPA’s Investigative Reporting for Dave Waddell’s series and in Immigration for Leslie Layton’s reporting;
- A third place in CNPA’s Investigative Reporting to Dave Waddell and a third place from the Society for Features Journalism for Yucheng Tang’s reporting on mental health diversion;
- Two fourth place honors — in CNPA’s Enterprise Reporting and in Social Justice & Civic Engagement to Yucheng Tang, Leslie Layton and freelance photographer Karen Laslo.
- Three fifth place honors — in Homeless Reporting, In-depth Reporting and Video Journalism, all to Yucheng Tang.
2025
Yucheng Tang’s 2024 story of cultural rediscovery, showcasing traditions from Chinese and Latin cultures, won first place in culture reporting from American Community Media.
Tang earned second place from California News Publishers Association (CNPA) in the Local Coverage of Election 2024 category for a story on the District 7 Chico City Council race.
Tang and freelance photographer Karen Laslo were awarded fifth place from CNPA in the Homelessness Reporting category for the article “Haven of Hope on Wheels.”
2024
ChicoSol was awarded a first place from CNPA in the prestigious Community Focus category. The award honored the 2023 stories by Natalie Hanson and Leslie Layton on the gender identity lawsuit filed against Chico Unified School District by a local mom.
Contributor Natalie Hanson won the top award from Ethnic Media Services in the category “The Rise in Hate Crimes and Efforts to Find Healing.” ChicoSol also placed fourth in both Investigative Reporting and Health Reporting.
2022
While ChicoSol’s work has been recognized yearly for many years, we want to make special mention of the fact that Contributor Dave Waddell was recognized with a Freedom of Information Award from the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California.