Introducing... The Tucson Agenda!
The Agenda is launching a new operation in the OId Pueblo.
We’ve been warning you, loyal readers, for a while now that the Agenda has some big new projects in the works.
Today, we're thrilled to announce that we’re growing our team to take our coverage to a whole other level with a new locally focused newsletter.
If you guessed (or hoped) we'd be headed to the Old Pueblo, you're absolutely right!
Please welcome the Tucson Agenda, launching on the Fourth of July.
The Tucson Agenda will be a separate, sister publication of the Arizona Agenda, staffed by veteran reporters who have spent their careers covering their community, Tucson.
Click the button now to subscribe for free.
We’ll tell you more on Monday about the new folks and how this crazy idea came together.
For now, we want to explain why Tucson.
Local journalism in Tucson has taken a big hit recently, with major staff cuts to Southern Arizona's longest-running publication. As the corporate-owned dailies continue to slash reporting positions, it means fewer experienced journalists are left to keep an eye on our local communities and elected officials. And that leaves Tucsonans less informed about issues they want and need to understand.
Of course, the demise of the corporate daily newspaper isn’t just a Southern Arizona problem. But it’s hitting Tucson especially hard right now.
We love Tucson!1 Tucsonans are civically engaged, community-oriented, thoughtful folks. They deserve a media landscape that reflects that.
And we think we can help. But we can’t do it without your support.
We launched the Arizona Agenda almost two years ago with a $100,000 advance from Substack that assured us that we could pay ourselves for at least a year. From that small investment, we’ve grown into a sustainable employee-owned local newsletter that can support two reporters, some contract staff and the occasional freelancer. And we’re still growing!
Unfortunately, Substack is no longer offering the kinds of local news advances that allowed us to take a chance and build this publication.
So we’re asking you to help get the Tucson Agenda running. In exchange for your support, you’ll receive cool bonuses like merch, VIP tickets to twice-annual events with local movers and shakers, or occasional coffees with the founders.
With the Arizona Agenda we’ve proven that this local news model can work. Now we want to put that knowledge to use in a community that desperately needs more media options.
Donate to support the Tucson Agenda today.
The Tucson Agenda will focus on the bread and butter of local news: local government decisions, politics and government-adjacent issues and organizations.
The decisions made by local elected officials have a major impact on our day-to-day lives. We’ll keep a watchful eye on our cities and counties to ensure you know how — and why — those decisions are made.
We think you deserve an informative and entertaining way to stay in the know about what’s happening in your community. So, we’re gonna create it.
Just like the Arizona Agenda, the Tucson Agenda will rely on veteran local reporters with a deep understanding of the issues and personalities that affect their town. We’ll give readers the tools and information to make Tucson a smarter, stronger community. And we’ll make it fun and interesting because that’s how being involved in civic life should be.
The Tucson Agenda will also highlight great reporting that Southern Arizonans need to see from our friends at other news outlets. There’s no reason to spend half your day doom-scrolling and slogging through the social media rubbish to find the news you want and need. There’s too much news and too few reporters to cover it all. Let’s work together to boost each other up!
We’ll be frank with you, readers: We’re going out on a limb to do this. We have no advance from Substack. No major donor propping this up. No safety net.
We believe it’ll work. But that’ll depend on you. Our fate is in your hands. We trust you.
If you want the Tucson Agenda to exist, we need you to pitch in. Here are a few ways you can help:
📨 Forward or share this email. Tell all of your friends, family and random acquaintances in Tucson and Southern Arizona about this exciting new publication. Post on social media. Text a friend. Help us spread the word.
📜 Subscribe to the Tucson Agenda now. We have a lot of subscription options to choose from. You can become a founding member and get additional subscriptions for friends. You can give gift subscriptions or start a group subscription. Or you can sign up for free.
💵 Donate to help us get off the ground. Building a local newsletter from scratch takes a long time and a lot of hard work. Can you help us get there? Donate $1,000 or more to help us build a newsletter to serve your town. You’ll get some cool perks!
🙋 Get in touch. So many of our readers are experts in their fields: elected officials, lawyers, accountants, business owners, grant writers and social media marketers. If you have a skill that can help us build this thing, we’d love to hear from you. And if you have a hot tip or story idea, don’t hesitate to reach out! (You can also email info@tucsonagenda.com)
❓What’s next?: We’ll reveal who’s leading this project and tell you more about how it all came together on Monday. And that’s just one of several big announcements we have planned this summer! Stay tuned…
As always, thank you all for your continued support.
Hank often claims to be from Tucson, even though he grew up in the Valley. But we let him get away with it because he worked at a few newspapers around southern Arizona.
While I'm not a Southern Arizona person, I applaud this expansion! As you point out, local journalism is suffering, and this is true both here and around the country. Without initiatives like yours, our communities' comprehension of critical issues in our state will decline. Bravo!
I don't live in Tucson but I believe in you and went ahead and subscribed. Good luck!