We seek journalism worth writing

Our online experiment reaches a turning point

I used to say I didn’t go to work, I went to a place where I did things I liked doing.

That place was a newsroom, and what we did was find out things happening in our community that affected the people who lived there.

Technology changed the business, leaching the fun out of the job until it was mostly drudgery. I wasn’t sad to leave.

Now, however, technology has given me back the chance to do satisfying journalism. Substack is not a newsroom with a collection of curious characters exchanging quips while sipping bad coffee. But it’s a platform where Ken and I and many other former print journalists can again write about things that matter in our communities.

As in the old days, when we were barely getting paid, the work is satisfying even when we aren’t earning money. But since paying is the usual way to acknowledge value, we have decided to make that option available to our readers.

We believe in what we’re doing, and we like recognition from readers that our work is worth their time. So we’ve turned on payments. You don’t have to pay (although that day may come), but it encourages us when you do.

It’s wonderful the way so very much is available online. Remembering the days when we kept encyclopedias in the newsroom and stacks of phone books for looking up people’s numbers and the spelling of their names, I’m still astonished at our access to this information ocean.

What Ken and I offer is knowledge of our own little island. No other platform has writers with the length and breadth of our experience here in the Glens Falls area, where our readers live or used to. This is our home. We appreciate it. 

It’s 6:19 Thursday morning, the time of day when I do most of my writing. (Photo by Bella Doolittle)