OLD Media Moves

How the local biz news newsletter Charlotte Ledger is growing

Christie Smythe of The Business of Business examines The Charlotte Ledger, a newsletter that covers business news in Charlotte, North Carolina, that is run by Tony Mecia.

Smythe reports, “Still, the Charlotte Ledger is growing — adding 50-80 net subscribers per month — while the Observer is shrinking. The Observer’s total daily circulation has cratered from 155,497 in 2011 to a current 73,614, including 19,602 digital-only subscribers, according to a recent audit.

“Promising ‘no fluff, no pop-up ads, no time-wasting,’ the Substack offers three separate newsletters: One focusing on local business news, one on obituaries and one on transit. The Ledger has come a long way from its founding in 2019. At the time, when former Observer business editor Tony Mecia started it, he had only a rolodex of local newsmakers and 300 Twitter followers. (Now he has only 793, proving you don’t have to be a Twitter rockstar to be a successful content creator.)

“Mecia employs former Observer reporter Cristina Bolling as a full-time staff member and some freelancers, with a compensation structure that is aligned with the Ledger’s financial performance, according to Axios. The Arlington, Virginia-based media company Axios, founded by a group of former Politico reporters, is also making a play for local news markets — despite past failed attempts by other startups.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

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