About Dayton Informs

What this is

Dayton Informs is a free civic information platform for the Dayton, Ohio area. We publish community milestones — obituaries, birth announcements, graduations, and more — at no cost to families. We maintain a consolidated calendar of every public meeting held by Dayton-area government bodies. And we are building tools to make public records genuinely accessible to the people they belong to.

Everything on this platform is free, with no paywalls, no subscriptions, and no advertising. This information belongs to the community, and the community should not have to pay to access it.

What this is not

Dayton Informs is not affiliated with the City of Dayton, Montgomery County, or any government agency. It is an independent project. Government bodies do not control, review, or approve any content published here.

Why this exists

For generations, the Dayton Daily News provided the infrastructure for community information — obituaries, public meeting coverage, birth announcements, and accountability reporting. As the newspaper contracts, much of that infrastructure is disappearing. Obituaries now cost families hundreds of dollars. Public meetings happen with no one watching. Life milestones go unrecorded.

This platform exists because Dayton residents — especially elderly, low-income, and working-class residents — deserve access to community information as a basic civic service, not a luxury product.

The Community Information District

Dayton Informs is a working prototype of a proposed Community Information District — a publicly-funded, editorially independent local information utility. If established, the Information District would be funded through a modest property tax levy on the Dayton ballot, similar to the hospital levy (Issue 9) that Dayton voters approved in 2024.

A funded Information District would:

• Operate a small, independent newsroom with editorial independence from city government
• Publish community milestones — obituaries, births, weddings, graduations — free of charge
• Maintain a proactive public records repository (contracts, permits, property transfers)
• Pay community members to attend and document public meetings
• Distribute information across digital, print, and audio channels to serve residents without internet access
• Maintain a permanent searchable archive for genealogical and historical research

We are building this prototype first, so that when voters are asked to fund the Information District, they are voting for something they already use — not an abstract proposal.

Stay Informed

Sign up for occasional updates about the platform and the Information District initiative. We will never share your email or send you spam.

Support This Project

Dayton Informs is currently self-funded. If you'd like to support this work, help spread the word, or get involved, reach out:

Email: info@daytonfyi.com