Celebrating our birthday at LALtoday

We’re looking back on five years of bringing you Lakeland’s top news and events.

We’re still starting our day with LALtoday and coffee five years later.

Photo by @thelaltoday

Table of Contents

This week marks five years since LALtoday first sent out a newsletter at 6 a.m. Since then, we’ve been sharing Lakeland’s local news updates, city history, food + drink recommendations, and more with you every morning. Stroll with us down memory lane to look back at a few of our “firsts.”

Newsletter

The very first time we appeared in your inbox, it was to welcome our earliest subscribers. In the inaugural newsletter, we promised to share need-to-know Lakeland information, from development updates to restaurant recommendations. Some things never change.

Here are five of our top stories since 2018:

Instagram post

After hitting “send” on our morning newsletter, we took to Instagram to share our very first post. Since then, we’ve shared 3,800+ posts and grown to over 28,000 followers. Push us towards that goal by following us to get even more local news every day.

Remember our launch party here at Cob & Pen? | Photo by @thelaltoday

Events

We’ve been helping you plan your week since the very beginning of LALtoday. Looking back at our first list of August events, you can see some that are still going strong, like the downtown Food Truck Rally or singer-songwriter nights at Hillcrest Coffee. Also on the list? Our launch party that we held at Cob & Pen that week.

You’re not supposed to share birthday wishes, but ours is to continue sharing more Swan City content with our readers for many more years. You can help support our mission by becoming an LALtoday member, forwarding our newsletter to a friend, or following along with our social media posts. Here’s to many more years.

More from LALtoday
The only thing better than a baseball game is when it comes with extra perks.
See top performers on stage when they stop in Tampa + Orlando on Broadway national tours.
Polk County plans to reconstruct the boardwalk over the lake and add a stoplight at a busy intersection near Southeastern University.
This annual festival celebrates all things aviation. Save this guide to admission, activities, and aviation fun.
Students can now order food online, and an AI-powered food delivery robot will bring it directly to their location. Would you like to see this tech in another part of Lakeland?
Let us plan your nightly entertainment with movies, live music, and stage shows, plus the perfect places to grab a bite.
In response to a statewide water shortage, the Southwest Florida Water Management District is enacting water restrictions for Polk County and surrounding areas.
Polk County Public Schools just broke ground on Junior Achievement’s innovative new Discovery Center where students will get hands-on business experience.
When it comes to hyperspecific food festival themes, Central Florida has the recipe down pat.
Bookmark this guide for a curated list of events taking place each month that we’re most looking forward to.