The past year and a half is a lesson in accepting I can’t do it all – covering every community event, localizing breaking news, engaging with the Facebook / socials, working on the bigger topics – while expecting sustainability. I burned out and am figuring how to move forward.

What’s not changing:

Longer reads: The downtown series is an example. And the water timeline. More in-depth, no distracting videos and ads. Just original, AI-free words from a journalist who lives here too.

Council news: Not everyone knows (or cares!) how municipal government works. But this is where the small decisions can turn into delayed high-profile projects. Or maybe, there’s a pattern of choices being made.

Watching elected people make decisions is part of what makes them accountable to voters. The more you observe, the better quality questions to ask. The resulting context means you’ll have more insight on what’s happening in our town. That’s what I want to give you. I’ve been the lone person at the media table in council chambers since 2018.

Nerdily, my favourite thing to cover is a municipal election. Because The Phoenix is the only professionally-run news outlet in town, you’ll get balance, objectivity + all the debate and election night news, as it happens.

After the election? The media chair is where I’ll stay.

If The Phoenix is to continue with fewer customers and minimal advertising, it has to be worth your time to read, and worth my time to cover.

What’s changing:

If you can read it for free, you probably won’t read it here: Why add to the noise and amplification of what’s already out? You’ll get stories you won’t find elsewhere.

Community Group coverage: From 2020 to 2025, much time was spent covering community events. Art shows, profiles on people who sought me out for stories about themselves, coffee dates with volunteers. Charity runs, special projects. Each non-profit group had its own free page on The Phoenix with all their promo material and events. As I started to build, this was my customer base. The vision was like a community newspaper, only online.

When a group of retirees started their own volunteer-run newspaper, it helped change The Phoenix’s direction. The loss of advertising and general inquiries, the plagiarism of gated Phoenix content and the ongoing loss of subscribers all pointed to a need to change who I serve and get back to why I started this business in the first place. Journalism!

Truly, thanks to those of you who have stuck with this thing. I appreciate you taking the time to read this, it’s been on my mind awhile.

–Kristen