It’s been 10 years since the launch of Triad City Beat, a free bi-weekly alternative newspaper covering regional news, politics, and culture. The paper is unapologetic about its mission to hold truth to power while maintaining editorial independence. Over the past decade, Triad City Beat has published a spectrum of stories covering racial justice, LGBTQ+ issues, housing concerns, and law enforcement controversies.
The paper is hosting a 10th-anniversary party on Wednesday evening at Flat Iron in Greensboro.
Triad City Beat was co-founded by Brian Clarey, who remains as publisher and executive editor. Clarey joined WFDD's Neal Charnoff for a look back on the past decade.
Interview highlights:
On how the paper is evolving:
"When we started, we were always looking for gaps in the media sphere, locally. And we were always willing to run the types of stories that nobody else was willing to run. But back then there was a lot more media. So we sort of went for these off-the-nose type stories, we ran a lot of long form. That was a big point of pride for us in the beginning ... And as we've moved along, so much has happened historically since 2014, you know, the 2016 election changed a lot of things and bubbled up a lot of this alt-right stuff to the fore. And then also the racial reckoning that happened during the pandemic, which of course, came later. And that was a big event. And now, we started off as this sort of alternative press. And because of the decimation of our daily newspapers, we're really veering more towards traditional type coverage; local governments, city council, county commission, because that's the stuff that's not getting done."
On the biggest challenge to maintaining publication:
"It's always revenue. The business model that we've been operating under has been destroyed. Whereas we always relied on advertising ... And now there's digital advertising. And the packages are so much more complicated, and the advertising dollars are stretched out so much more thinly. Whereas there were just weren't that many places to advertise back then. And Report For America nailed it. In a report they issued a couple of years ago, the advertising model, which once yielded enormous profit margins, is broken. And you're never going to be able to sell enough advertising to do what the daily newspapers used to do in these markets, which was everything. And so we've had to diversify revenue in a lot of different ways."
On looking ahead to the next ten years:
"You know, it's very, very difficult, but also at the same time, as the local news deteriorates, it becomes so much more important to do it. Whereas the delivery mechanisms have changed, some of the ways we go about our business, and certainly newsroom culture, has changed. The mission is the same as ever. And it's becoming more important than ever to have reporters out there asking questions, writing the answers down, putting them all together, compiling again some facts and some paperwork and some whatever you can find, and assembling these things into something that folks can understand."