Survey says...

We're too liberal ... But you still love us ... And our suggestions box is overflowing.

As we head into the final month of the year (yay!), we are once again soliciting your feedback and advice.

The Agenda is a “subscriber-first publication,” meaning we take our cues from you, not from advertisers or corporate and philanthropic donors.

You pay the bills, so your opinions matter to us — and your survey responses help guide our plans for 2026.

Nearly 200 of you have already taken a minute to tell us what you love, what you don’t, and how we can do better in 2026. Thanks for that!

We’d love to hear from more of you. Here’s that link again.

In the meantime, we thought it would be fun to share some of the survey results with you. Think of it as the first poll of 2026!

You’re too kind

First off, you readers are incredibly flattering. Whenever we need an emotional boost, we’ll just look back at the words of encouragement and thanks that you all sent in this survey.

They bring little tears to our ink-smeared eyeballs.

Here’s a very small sample of some of our favorite comments:

I never followed local politics. The Agenda news is a real eye-opener for me. Now, I know who to contact when I am disappointed or satisfied with our politicians’ decisions.

I am new to Arizona but plan to remain here long-term, and being educated on how past politics affect today is useful, personally and professionally (I’m an attorney).

You all have raised issues I do not usually think about. Keep surprising me with the thoughtful and well-researched issues you find in our state.

You’re one of my best sources of state news (and the most amusing, which also matters).

I love the Agenda, both Tucson and Arizona. It has helped me process and understand politics in our state and region.

Your reporting and research is so thorough. I’m amazed with how much great content you guys generate with a small team. I tell everyone about you! Thanks for what you do.

Suggestions box

Of course, there’s always room for improvement. And you all had some great thoughts about how to do that.

Among our favorites were these two ideas, which we’ve been working on for months now.

As we move from Substack to our new home over this winter break, we’re putting a lot of energy into categorizing and grouping our archives, which we hope you will find helpful. Super helpful, even.

It would be super helpful to have an online platform where I can track stories about the same topics over time. It’s not feasible for me to read through every single newsletter or try to tag each newsletter with a particular topic.

I confess, I voted last-minute this year and just did a search of my inbox for particular topics you’d mentioned. Would be great if we could have a more organized method of searching, say, our city, or certain people or propositions.

In fact, a lot of your suggestions were things we’ve been thinking about. Like this idea of mapping the local news ecosystem.

I do love it when you go into journalism, media, and information dissemination in general. A guide with say, a chart or list of who owns which media in Arizona, for example, could be interesting?

Some of your ideas were big-picture, like doing more long-form investigative pieces, launching a podcast or starting an RSS feed. Some were hyper-specific, like requesting a table of contents at the top of the newsletter.

Some of them were more thematic — like this idea of focusing on the public good, which we loved.

Going into 2026, I like the idea of promoting the public good — public schools and universities, public health, public libraries, public transit, public discourse, and entities such as our parks (local, state and national).

We’ve sorted, categorized and color-coded each of your ideas, and we’re discussing feasibility.

Thanks for the feedback!

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Mixed messages

There were two aspects of what we do here that you all have strong feelings about: gossip and snark.

Unfortunately, our readers are not of one mind about gossip and snark. Some love it, some hate it.

More snark. It’s easier to handle all the crazy when the stupidity is called out continuously.

Fewer snarky jokes. Save space and fill with more info.

I do like the gossip. Sorry.

But overall, you readers argued for more snark and gossip by about a two-to-one margin. So our snark and gossip level must be about right.

Or as one reader put it:

The behind-the-scenes gossip is a bit indulgent but entertaining.

We’re too liberal

This was actually the most surprising result — not because some of you think we’re too liberal (we’re used to that), but because none of you called us out for being too conservative.

We usually get a few “HOW DARE YOU INTERVIEW ALEX KOLODIN” type comments that help us feel more balanced.

So, message received — though we’d like to take a minute to talk about it.

To be clear, the Agenda has never aspired to provide the kind of both-sides journalism some of you want.

We don’t do news with “just the facts.” We do news with the facts, context, history, backstory, subtext, analysis and perspective that helps you make sense of the news.

And, yes, we add some snark and gossip to help keep us sane.

Unlike the corporate newspapers we’ve previously worked for, the Agenda is written from a viewpoint.

Not a partisan or liberal viewpoint, but the viewpoints of seasoned local journalists who have the freedom to call bullshit when they smell it.

But the bullshit is not spread evenly across the field. Not even close.

We view it as our patriotic duty to point that out — even if it costs us subscribers.

That said, some of your feedback on this topic was incredibly thoughtful. Thank you for taking the time to write, and for being honest enough to tell us that.

We’re listening.

It’s often easier to call someone an idiot than to debate the merit of their ideas. And in some cases, calling them an idiot and moving on is the right approach.

But it shouldn’t be the first approach.

Thanks for the reminder.

Ok, let’s not end this on a bummer. Here’s our single favorite response to the question of “what else is on your mind?”

I’m thinking the Legislature will be back soon, and we are all f*cked.