Cardinal News launched five years ago today. It has been an incredible, joyful journey to restore local news to our region.
I can’t recall anyone once asking why we were doing this. The grief was profound in losing meaningful journalism and a news organization that was part of the community.
There were questions, of course. What is nonprofit journalism? We explained that it works much like public radio and public television. Readers who are able help support our journalism for everyone.
What is a digital news organization? We thought then it was a morning newsletter to deliver our latest stories and a website for people to read them.
Today it is much more. Cardinal News reaches about one-third of the adults living in Southwest and Southside Virginia — through our seven newsletters, our website, audio stories, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and more. Even Reddit.
That last one may surprise you as much as it did me. Our stories receive more than 1.5 million views a month on Reddit alone.
Local news has changed. We must continue to evolve and expand and meet people where they are.
You might recall when we started Cardinal News, we said we weren’t competing with what was left of the local newspapers. Instead, we would tell the vital stories they chose not to tell.
You’ve watched while they’ve continued to do less. With your support, we have stepped into the void and filled it with important, impactful stories.
We now reach more households every morning than any newspaper in Virginia. And we are building our audiences by listening to what they need to be civically informed and engaged.
Earlier this year, we created a local newsletter just for the New River Valley. We went from zero subscribers to 6,600 in just a few short months.
On Oct. 14, we will launch a newsletter just for the Roanoke Valley. As with the NRV, it will contain content we have been hearing that people want. (You can sign up early here.)
We will keep listening.
We’ve also heard that you want us to keep doing the big stories and to do more investigative and watchdog reporting. Ricky Young recently joined Cardinal News as editor in chief, bringing deep experience leading exactly that kind of work. He’s been here less than a month, and already, changes are happening.
When we started Cardinal News, we had three employees. Today, we have a team of 30.
Together, they have published more than 9,000 stories.
We now reach at least a quarter million readers each month on our website; more than 40,000 people subscribe to one of our newsletters, and a like number follow us on social media.
But our success cannot be measured by numbers alone.
It is measured by the communities that now see themselves and their concerns reflected in serious, in-depth reporting.
It is measured by the public officials who know someone is paying attention.
And it is measured by the readers who have the information they need to participate more fully in their communities.
Cardinal News would not have gotten off the ground without The Secular Society, which offered a challenge grant that was generously matched by Dominion Enterprise and Carilion Clinic.
From our very first edition on Sept. 27, 2021, others stepped in to help. We are so grateful for our inaugural donors who generously took that leap of faith with us and to the local foundations that helped us build our news team.
They believed that our communities needed — and deserved — a trusted source of independent local journalism. More importantly, they trusted us to build it.
My fellow cofounders — board members Debbie Meade and Chris Turnbull; founding editor Dwayne Yancey; and finance director Tonya Hart, who, for the first four years, volunteered her services; along with our board chair, Caroline Glickman, who joined us early in our journey — have been instrumental in our success.
They helped turn an idea into a news organization. They did the difficult, often unseen work of building Cardinal News from the ground up.
We also would not be celebrating five years without the corporations and businesses that partner with us and invest in our work through sponsorships and understand that our newsroom remains fiercely independent.
Our readers, individual donors and especially our Cardinal Club members, who support us with monthly or annual donations, have made this possible. They believe good stories matter.
Together, they have given our journalists the ability to focus on consequential reporting and projects that make a difference.
Today, people tell me they begin their mornings with coffee and our newsletters. They tell me about stories that helped them understand their communities and what it means to have a trusted source of news.
Let me share just a few examples.
History book
Three years ago, we started a monthly series, Cardinal 250, to share the stories of little-known Virginians’ contributions to our country’s founding. This summer we hired 21 Virginia artists to turn these stories into a graphic history book called Virginians Like Us that is now available for download.
The book was created for fourth graders as a supplement to their Virginia history lessons. But, really, it is for all of us.
It is one of the best — and most enduring — journalism projects I have ever been involved with.
Voter guide
Five years ago, we discovered that voter guides, once a staple of news coverage everywhere, had largely gone by the wayside.
Today, Cardinal provides voters in all 133 counties and cities in Virginia with information about who and what is on their ballot.
This year, we sent questionnaires to more than 1,100 candidates. We heard a high school teacher is directing first-time voters to our guide to help them make informed choices.
Data centers
And then there is our data center reporting.
Everyone is talking about data centers now. But Cardinal has been leading coverage of this explosive growth story for several years.
Our stories have helped readers understand the economic, environmental and community impacts. That work received Virginia’s inaugural Center for Integrity in News Reporting award.
Path to Solutions
Cardinal isn’t just writing about the problems facing our communities, as volunteer fire and EMS ranks plummet while equipment costs skyrocket. We are reporting on home-grown solutions. Through solutions journalism, we elevate what is happening in one place so that others facing similar problems can evaluate new ideas. Our stories are making beneficial connections.
Floods’ aftermath
When devastating floods strike our communities, our reporters are there. But they are also there months and years later, reporting on the long, difficult process of recovery. In August, Elizabeth Beyer reported that most of the $50 million allocated after Hurricane Helene went unspent because the bureaucratic hurdles were too high. Families forced to abandon their homes are still — now two years later — displaced because of red tape.
Last week, the governor announced she’d get the aid moving.
This is the kind of journalism our supporters make possible.
It allows our reporters to stay with important stories. It allows them to dig deeper, provide context and give people information they can use.
Our work has earned national and statewide recognition. But what matters most about those honors is what they represent: a talented team producing journalism of exceptional quality for communities that have too often been overlooked.
Over the past five years, more than 6,000 individual donors and more than 130 business sponsors have helped make Cardinal News possible.
That support has allowed us to expand our newsroom, deepen our reporting and serve more communities.
But growth has never been the goal for its own sake.
We have grown because the need is great.
We have grown because there are important stories waiting to be told.
And we have grown because strong communities need strong journalism.
There is still much more work to do. Too many communities have lost trusted sources of local news. Too many important stories go untold. Too many people feel disconnected from the decisions shaping their lives.
Cardinal News was founded with a mission to strengthen the voices of the people in our communities. That mission remains at the heart of everything we do.
Five years ago, Cardinal News was an idea. It was an act of faith in the future of local journalism and in the people of Southwest and Southside Virginia.
Today, it is a thriving news organization with a remarkable staff, a growing audience and a national reputation for excellence.
We celebrate and thank all of you for your support, for trusting us with your stories, inviting us into your communities and making Cardinal News part of your lives.
Thank you for believing in Cardinal News.
And thank you for being part of what comes next.
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