Local News for the Way You Live Today
In April, the journalist-turned-venture capital entrepreneur Katherine Boyle penned a widely-read essay that really lit a fire under me at the right time.
A reporter at The Washington Post when Amazon founder Jeff Bezos purchased the newspaper, Boyle has had a front-row seat at the convergence of media and technology in the early 21st century.
She’s now a general partner at Andreesen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley VC firm started by Marc Andreesen, the web browser pioneer behind Mosaic and Netscape.
Boyle has made the leap of many journalists going into something else over the last two decades, as our profession and various media industries have been in major transformation if not rapid decline.
In her piece for the Common Sense newsletter founded by Bari Weiss, a former columnist at The New York Times, Boyle concluded that American dynamism is lagging primarily because we’re just not all that serious about building for the future.
She takes aim at the massive institutional decay and warped priorities that have marked our times. Yet she strikes a tone of optimism in closing when she writes that “We do not need aging institutions to pave the way for American dynamism. But we need American will.”
I nodded my head often while reading this blunt, but hopeful argument. This paragraph from Boyle in particular I want to shoot straight into my veins:
“Building is an action, a choice, a decision to create and move. It is shovels in the dirt with a motley crew of doers who get the job done because no one else will. Building is the only certainty. The only thing we can control. When the projects we believed were Teflon strong are fraying like the history they toppled, the only thing to do is to make something new again.”
I’m among the journalists who couldn’t imagine doing anything else but the news, and that’s what prompted me to start East Cobb News. The idea was to bootstrap it for a couple of years, then ramp up the editorial and business side.
In March 2020, just as I was seeking office space and lining up freelancers, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, and we all know what happened next. I buckled up to cover a story unlike anything else in my 40 years as a professional journalist.
Building something from scratch is hard enough, but carrying on during such a surreal time was something I never imagined.
There were days when I literally did not know what day it was, or if I would ever write something that wasn’t about COVID.
As I’ve noted previously, we got major increases in web traffic due to extensive coverage of the local COVID response, which affected people in every aspect of their daily lives.
That was a silver lining, to know how valuable your product has become to others, and I’ve tried to identify others as we appear to have put the worst of the pandemic behind us.
As another Labor Day holiday approaches, I feel very gratified to have made it this far, re-energized and grateful to the community that we’re serving.
I hear from readers frequently about how they appreciate what they read at East Cobb News, and I can’t overstate how much that means to me. I get some complaints, too, and try to address them in the same way as the compliments.
It was 14 years ago this week that I left the newspaper business, when I took a buyout at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I was taken aback this week to read that the place that nourished my career over 18 years appears to be ending daily print editions, publishing a newspaper only on the weekend.
This scenario isn’t all that surprising, and other newspapers are likely to follow suit.
The ink-stained wretches in my profession have been nostalgic about the old days for years. While I will always love what newspapers have been (for the most part), the news isn’t about a delivery system. It’s not about the feel of a newspaper in your hands with your morning coffee.
Tactile pleasures aside, it’s about the news, and the best way to provide it and deliver it to a readership. That’s why it’s imperative to keep building outlets that meet their readers and advertisers where they are.
The slogan under my masthead is “Local News for the Way You Live Today,” and that’s my the premise of my building project.
I’ve watched my own industry evaporate in front of my eyes, and chronicled the last couple years of death and loss during a pandemic, tearing and burning things down, the ripping apart of the social fabric and the public trust. All I want to do is keep building, keep making this site the best it can be for a community that nurtured me.
It’s not on a scale of the tech companies or a larger news media entity. I’ve planted a seed where I am, and want to cultivate it.
Most of all, I want to build something that will outlast me. A former colleague at Patch who started her own news site and magazine in Walton County has sold them to the local newspaper.
Her example and determination helped inspire me to start East Cobb News. Cynthia Rozzo, the founder of the EAST COBBER, recently sold the magazine to her advertising manager, Laren Brown, who is carrying the publication into its third decade.
That’s remarkable staying power, something I hope to realize some day. But there’s still a lot of building to do. I’m unpacking the results of a recent reader survey, and plotting out editorial and business objectives for the rest of the year.
For the first time in a long time, however, I’m going to take a couple days away from the screen, Sunday and Monday—barring major breaking news—and absorb the true meaning of Labor Day.
I hope you will too, and I encourage you to stay in touch.
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Great article Wendy and thank you for everything you do to bring light to things going on in East Cobb. We are tremendously thankful that you provide great local journalism to issues that matter to us. Wishing you many more years of success!
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More than 7,500 Greater Atlanta residents are expected to raise heart health awareness and funds for the American Heart Association’s 2022 Greater Atlanta Heart Walk .
Since the inception of the Heart Walk, mortality rates from cardiovascular disease and stroke have plummeted by 45 percent.
The Heart Walk funds research to deliver progressive, life-saving science as big solutions to a big problem.
The funds raised from the Greater Atlanta Heart Walk go towards research, advocacy, CPR training and to promote better health in support of the Association’s 2024 Health Equity Impact Goal , reducing barriers to health care access and quality in Atlanta.
The event is free, however participants are encouraged to register.
Sponsors include Comcast Business and Xfinity, ADP, Wellstar Health System, Northside Hospital, Southern Company, Emory Healthcare, S.A. White Oil, Kemper, Home Depot and Burns and McDonnell.
District 3 Cobb Commissioner JoAnn Birrell is having a fishing and conversation event for constituents Saturday that also includes participation from the Cobb Police Department and Cobb PARKS.
You can bring a fishing pole—and a necessary fishing license—at the lakeside passive park to discuss county and public safety issues. The event is free and is open to the public.
Monthly 45-minute walking tours of the early 18th century working farm are conducted by Cobb Parks and Recreation. The property includes the Chattahoochee River, lowland forests, terraced agricultural fields, an orchard, and plenty of wildlife, such as ducks, turtles, herons, and maybe even a beaver.
Tours are conducted the second Saturday of every month. For more information call 770-528-8840.
Dark Star Brothers kicks off East Cobb Park’s Music in the Park fall lineup.
Formerly known as MIB Lite, Dark Star Brothers is a duo comprised of Ian Nathanson of Men In Blues Band, and Perry White from Hoosier Daddy Band.
Their selections include a mix of eclectic jam-oriented blues, folk, Americana, country and rock.
Bring a blanket and/or chairs and food to the back quad at the concert stage and enjoy.
Presented by the Friends for the East Cobb Park and Wellstar.
Additional fall concerts are on Sept. 25 and Oct. 9.
The Cobb County Public Library System Bookmobile will be on the premises with a storytime event, and checking out materials and the use of a mobile hotspot for Internet service.
Patrons must present their library cards to check out items, and members of the public can apply for a card at the Bookmobile.
Free fitness classes in conjunction with barre3 take place every Wednesday through October at Central Boulevard, located between Kale Me Crazy and Banana Republic.
Guests are asked to bring their own mats for a full-body workout.
3 arrested at Chattahoochee NRA Sope Creek after car break-ins
Weekend Events: Music in the Park; Hyde Farm Tours; more
GSO launches ‘Give Back” initiative for local music programs
• Call/text 24/7 for breaking and emergency news tips: 404-219-4278
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