Taking Stock at CT Examiner

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It’s been a year since I hired away Cate Hewitt to be CT Examiner’s Employee #1 on April 1, 2019 and a giant leap of faith that we could thrive where other news organizations have failed in the region.

To date, we’re outpacing our year one goals…

And have successfully attracted a readership that otherwise might read the New York Times or Wall Street Journal as their “local” paper.

Our top ten towns by readership (in order): Old Lyme, Hartford, New York, East Lyme, Essex, New London, New Haven, Clinton, Boston, Stonington.

Our regular readerships extends across the state…

And here’s our readership this winter down in Florida…

Since hiring Cate, we’ve added Julia Werth, who has provided (in my opinion) the finest education reporting in the state, and Christopher McDermott, who has done a very good job covering the budget process across the region.

We’ve also brought in some regulars… Tim Leininger reviewing plays and Clare Byrne has already attracted a growing cult following for her writing on the arts and music.

You should check out the latest point and counterpoint from Red Jahncke on the right and Brendan Cunningham on the left.

In the last weeks we’ve added writing by Jordi Viladas, a professional chef and serious amateur angler.

At a time when other papers are cutting and folding, we’re in the midst of a job search.

And we’ve benefited from a remarkable amount of support from readers across the political spectrum, so we’re doing our best to give back… expanding coverage into news deserts, and in the wake of the cornavirus, we’ve added advertising for restaurants and food establishments hit hard by efforts to limit the spread of the virus, at no charge. Want an ad? Need us to design it? Write us and let us help connect you to our readers. We want to help.

You’re not our business plan, you’re our community.

And personally, realizing still that there are so many people needing help, still I’d like to say a word about our local checkers who spend hours every day out in public.

The employees there — the checkers in particular — are a much loved part of our community. I think we should help them. Please give it some thought and consider a donation.