The short version: this matters more than the headline suggests. The hype cycle moves fast enough to give you whiplash, so let me pump the brakes before we talk about what’s actually happening here. Romance fiction is one of the…
Category: Blog
Beyond the Yard Signs Walk through any neighborhood this month and you’ll see them sprouting like dandelions after rain. Yard signs for city council, school board, and mayoral candidates crowd front lawns and street corners. But here’s what twenty years…
The Numbers Game Everyone’s Playing Wrong The city released its quarterly crime statistics last week, and predictably, everyone focused on the headline number: a 12% increase in property crimes. The mayor’s office issued a statement. The opposition council members called…
The Numbers Behind the Controversy Three major residential developments are reshaping our city’s skyline and sparking heated debate at every city council meeting. The Riverside Commons project promises 400 affordable units. The downtown Meridian Tower will add 200 luxury condos….
The Numbers Behind the Numbers Every spring, residents across the country receive glossy budget summaries promising transparency and accountability. The pie charts look clean. The bullet points sound reassuring. But after covering municipal budgets for fifteen years, I’ve learned to…
The Numbers Don’t Lie, But They Don’t Tell Everything I’ve been tracking every business opening and closure on our 12-block downtown corridor since 2019. The spreadsheet now holds 247 entries. Forty-three openings this year alone. Thirty-one closures. Those numbers sound…
When Trust Becomes a Casualty Public confidence in media institutions has crashed worldwide. The latest global surveys show that trust in journalism has hit rock bottom across virtually every major democracy. This isn’t just about bad poll numbers. We’re watching…
The Trust Collapse Hitting Close to Home Trust in media has hit rock bottom worldwide, and if you think this is just some abstract problem for media executives to worry about, think again. It’s changing how your neighbors get information…
The Vanishing Fourth Estate More than 2,500 local newspapers have shuttered their doors since 2005, creating information voids across America that change how communities understand themselves. This isn’t just about losing the weekly sports scores or city council coverage. When…
The Scale of Local News Collapse American communities are losing their local newspapers at an alarming rate. More than 2,500 local newspapers have closed since 2005, leaving huge parts of the country without essential news coverage. This isn’t just about…
The evidence, examined carefully, tells a more specific story. Local news decline and media sustainability deserves more careful attention than the typical coverage provides, and the reason isn’t complicated once you know where to look. The data worth focusing on…
The evidence, examined carefully, tells a more specific story. The topic of local news decline and media sustainability deserves more careful attention than typical coverage provides, and the reason isn’t complicated once you know where to look. The data worth…