What is Charlottesville Community Engagement and why you should subscribe
Do you want to know more about how things work in the area in and around Charlottesville? I certainly do. That’s why I created Town Crier Productions in July 2020, and why there are now thousands of subscribers to the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter with about a quarter of the audience helping support the work financially.
Since the first edition, I have produced over 1,000 newsletters and podcasts that capture as much as I can about local and regional government. I’ve followed many stories on a beat that covers Charlottesville, Albemarle County, the University of Virginia and keeps an eye on what’s happening in Richmond. Reading or listening to the work will keep you better informed on public policy choices that come before elected officials.
Before we proceed, a note about payment. If you sign up for free, I will never to beg for money or introduce a false scarcity in order to frighten you into paying. I am confident that there are people who will help cover the cost of this service for everyone.
If you sign up for a paid subscription through Substack, you will help this newsletter and podcast grow. Your financial support will fuel my ability to pay attention to as much as many items as I can about what’s happening and to report on as much as possible. It is my hope within a year I will be able to begin hiring people to assist me.
For over five and a half years now, the support of over 800 Substack subscribers has helped keep me working as a journalist who has served this community for 20 years.
All subscriptions, no matter the level, help me keep planning for future installments of the Charlottesville Community Engagement newsletter as well as further development of the Information Charlottesville website. You’re helping me keep a close eye on what elected and appointed officials are up to.
If you sign up for free, there is the occasional piece content that only paid subscribers can access. This is usually the real estate transactions summary. The vast majority of content, though, will never be behind a paywall. That’s because the one in five people who make a paid subscription cover the cost to make sure I can provide this information to anyone.
A new chapter in my journalism career
My career journalism began in the early 1990’s at a student newspaper at Virginia Tech. I went on to work a series of internships in public radio before moving to Charlottesville in 2002 for a job in production. I created the Charlottesville Podcasting Network in 2005 as way of experimenting, a role that led to an eleven-year stint at Charlottesville Tomorrow.
I took a break in the summer of 2018 in order to try out another kind of job, but all I want to do is report on my community.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, I created a regular podcast called the Charlottesville Quarantine Report. This turned into this newsletter and Information Charlottesville. What will be created next?
I believe the United States of America needs more stories about itself, and for me that means an interest in the nuts and bolts of policy. In order to be able to explain what I know, I need to continue research. I do not have the answers, but I’ve dedicated much of my life to asking questions.
To find out more about the company that provides the tech for this newsletter, visit Substack.com.
