Local Neighborhood Newsletters

I was struck by how natural the idea of serving the public felt inside libraries. I had spent much of my career pushing, prodding, arguing, fighting, pleading and even begging for community participation in journalism. And yet, despite claiming to be “the voice of the people,” many news organizations are incredibly hesitant or don’t actually want... See more

Ads or No Ads?

In the early days of the newsletter, we were approached on several occasions with offers of money in exchange for advertising. Some people felt very strongly that this was a no-brainer—we needed money for various things, and this was a straightforward way to get it. I resisted. My concerns were twofold: one, I was worried readers... See more

“We realized it’s almost better to empower a single editor in each market,” Heafy said, “and centralize the rest of the operations.”

Behind that shift was something few media startups bother to build: a literal playbook. Heafy described a printed manual, four to five inches thick, that detailed every step of launching and operating a local... See more