Hot Ones with Michael Phillips and Graham Moomaw
The Richmonder: https://richmonder.org
This week we are joined by the founder of the Richmonder and one of his new star reporters, Michael Phillips and Graham Moomaw. They explain what they hope to accomplish with the launch of the new site on Sept. 9, and they'll also share some thoughts about hot sauce.
Episode Transcript
Michael Pope
I'm Michael Pope, and this is Pod Virginia. The podcast with hot questions and even hotter wings. Today, we're joined by the hottest news in all of Virginia; the launch of The Richmonder. We are joined by the founder of the new news organization, which is set to launch on September 9. He's a former reporter and editor with the Richmond Times-Dispatch; he is also a super fan of spicy wings. This will be a Pod Virginia Hot Ones episode; Michael Phillips, thanks for coming on the show.
Michael Phillips
I love it. This is as close as I'll ever get to being on Hot Ones; this is perfect.
Michael Pope
Well, we don't have the budget for catering. We're gonna lead the show with a Hot Ones question. Michael Phillips, where are the best spicy wings in Richmond?
Michael Phillips
Well, R.I.P. to Mojos, they had the best prices. They had a Monday night, 15-cent or 20-cent wing night, back in the day; you know, wings cost money. I'm a Wood & Iron guy in Scott's edition. They're down in Chesterfield, too. I love me some Wood & Iron wings.
Michael Pope
Okay, that concludes the Hot Ones portion of the show. We wanted to have a little fun at the top of the show. Onto The Richmonder; tell us about this new news organization. You've secured two of the biggest names in Virginia journalism, Graham Moomaw and Sarah Vogelsong, to launch this thing on September 9. The media world is buzzing about this. Michael Phillips, tell us a little bit about The Richmonder and why you're launching it?
Michael Phillips
Yeah, I'm really excited. The mission of The Richmonder is to be Richmond City-focused right out of the gate. We eventually want to have regional coverage, and we want to be news of the region. We want to connect people and inform them of what's going on in their city. A lot of people don't know what's going on. It could be what's going on at City Hall, what's going on in their neighborhoods, who are the people doing awesome things in the community, what's going on at the school board, and what's going on with education? A lot of these questions are going unasked at the local level right now. We're going to bring back hard-hitting and accountable reporting. We're going to bring back feature writing about the most interesting people, places, and things to know about the city. We want to be an indispensable guide to Richmond. I think the early response has been awesome and positive. It shows that there's a hunger for people who want to better connect with their city, and we're giving them the opportunity to do that.
Michael Pope
Your focus is going to be on the City Council, school board, and the mayoral race. In November, there's this big election for mayor. You're squarely focused on that race city and city politics. I understand that in the initial stages, The Richmonder is not going to be looking at the General Assembly, the governor, or the presidential election in Virginia; is that right?
Michael Phillips
That's correct. We won't be at the State House. We won't be doing national elections. We love that as a business model because so much of the media right now is polarized. It's biased. It's for the red team, or it's for the blue team; that's not what local issues are about. Potholes are not a red or blue Team issue. Potholes are an issue that matters to Richmonders, and they want answers about it in a real way that doesn't blame or incite or anything like that. That's why I love having Graham and Sarah on board. Graham's come along for the interview today, too, which is awesome. Graham, did you get me?
Graham Moomaw
Yep, I'm here.
Michael Phillips
I love it. I'd love to hear Graham's thoughts on the importance of being in the community. Part of why I love having Graham and Sarah on the team is that they know this city; they've been in this city. I've lived in this city for 17 years. We can ask the right questions. But more importantly, we show our faces every day. This isn't going to be let's do a hit job or a sensational piece. It won't be; let's move on to the next thing and try to get a job in New York. We want to embed in this community. We want to show Richmond what it means to have serious journalism. Journalism that asks serious questions and the difference that can make with our elected representation. We believe that if we're in the room, the people in the room behave differently because they know they're being watched. They know they'll be held accountable for their actions. We're not here to put our thumb on the scale. We're not here to endorse candidates. We'll never endorse candidates. We're not here to say, this is awesome, or this stinks. We're here to say this is what's going on, and we believe that if we inform the voters in that way, the voters will make decisions for the betterment of Richmond.
Michael Pope
All right. I want to bring in our other participants to this conversation. He's one of the leading legends of journalism in the Virginia press corps. He's the journalist that all the other journalists look up to. The one who makes us ask why I didn't do that story. He was with the Richmond Times-Dispatch before moving over to the Virginia Mercury. Now, he's there to be part of the launch of The Richmonder. Graham Moomaw, thanks for joining us; tell us about your favorite hot sauce.
Graham Moomaw
My favorite hot sauce. First off, thanks for having me and for that kind introduction. I would say Frank's. Frank's is the most versatile. I keep a jug of it next to my stove. I put it on everything: pizza, fried rice, eggs. Franks. Easy answer.
Michael Phillips
I also do Franks in the morning with my scrambled eggs. That's a great call.
Michael Pope
Actually, I'm also a big fan of Franks. I'm with you there. Graham, I was having a little fun with Hot Ones, because Michael Phillips is a fan of super spicy wings. I thought I'd do a Pod Virginia Hot Ones as kind of a funny gag at the top of the show. I didn't have you on to talk about your favorite hot sauce. Franks is a great answer. Fact check, it's really awesome. You should try it if you haven't tried it. But Graham Moomaw, tell us what you hope to accomplish at The Richmonder.
Graham Moomaw
As Michael was saying, as someone who covered both the State House beat and local news prior to the State House, part of why I wanted to make this switch is because the State House can feel insular at times. You can end up talking to the same lawmakers, lobbyists, and advocacy groups over and over again as opposed to getting out there and talking to regular people about what they're experiencing in their day-to-day lives. Obviously, good State House coverage does elevates the voices of regular people and connects what's happening at the State House with their day-to-day existence. It can be hard to do that when you're trying to crank out three or four stories a week. This is kind of the reality for a lot of reporters these days who have to fill a five-day-a-week newsletter. I think getting back to local news will broaden the types of stories that I'll be able to write. It'll help me get back out there. Better local government impacts people, I think, in a more direct and concrete way than State House issues often do. We were talking about polarization before; that's also part of this for me; I agree with Michael that the team red vs. team blue stuff matters a lot less at the local level. There's a focus on more basic questions like, How can we make the schools better? Are our tax dollars being spent wisely and efficiently? Is City Hall serving citizens well? Do people feel like they're getting ripped off? That's a big part of it, for me, getting back to where the rubber meets the road. Covering local issues that affect people more concretely.
Michael Pope
Michael Phillips, tell me a little bit about the business model here. This is going to be a nonprofit news organization. This is a direction that is in vogue right now. A lot of legacy media is not really doing so great, with the RTD being a great example of that. A lot of organizations are moving into this nonprofit model. This is going to be free to readers; is that accurate? It'll be totally free for people to read on the internet. Will it be funded by donations and subscriptions? Is that your business model?
Michael Phillips
That's accurate. We tell people that if they donate to us, they can make a difference. We can only make a difference if people are reading these stories and engaging with these stories. People who can afford it, we hope, will donate to us. We hope they become members. People who can't, we hope they read our stuff, and we hope they become better-informed citizens. We hope they'll make great decisions at the polls because of the information we provide them. We've got an obligation to do that as a society. To make sure everybody has the information they need to participate in this city. There are a lot of ways the newspaper used to make money, none of which are available to us. Classified ads, movie listings, big Macy's advertisements, Thanksgiving inserts; we won't be doing any of those things. Not because we don't want to or are too good for that. It's because those don't exist anymore. The internet took that business model. It's an acknowledgment that if the news is the core of your product, it's not inherently going to be mega-profitable. Switching to the nonprofit model, at the end of the day, we can ask how we made an impact. We won't ask how much money we made. Hopefully, that resonates with people. They'll see our reporting and our website, and they'll say, hey, I can access the stories I want to read. I can get the information I want to get; this is useful; this does lift up the town. We'll disclose our donors on the website. We have a lot of people who have stepped up and said this is important for the community. They said the community would be better off with this information. That this is worth funding and keeping up. The nonprofit is an acknowledgment that we're never going to make millions of dollars. But we think it's super important, and we think it makes a difference.
Michael Pope
Graham, you're stepping into a hornet's nest here. Richmond City Hall seems to be a wash in all kinds of problems with corruption and problems disclosing information through FOIA requests. What the heck is going on at City Hall? Has it always been this screwed up, or is this a recent development?
Graham Moomaw
Well, that's a big part of what I'm hoping to find out when I start this new beat. I covered City Hall back in 2014 and 2015. As I read these stories coming out of City Hall, one thing that has struck me is it really is a lot of the same issues that I was covering almost a decade ago. People are still having trouble with their utility bills. People will get a random bill for like, $500 or $600, and they'll say, Why is my bill this high? And they will have trouble getting answers from City Hall. The finance department was kind of a mess when I was covering it a decade ago. The FOIA issues weren't quite as bad, but it was always a challenge to get to get answers. I think showing up and having a presence at City Hall is going to be huge. A lot of times, the city council planning commission meetings can be pretty dull and boring. But just being in that room is important. If someone hasn't gotten an answer from a department head or from a spokesperson, and they're sitting in the back of the room, that is an opportunity for you to go up and ask them that question. Hopefully, I can get an answer from them.
I'm looking forward to getting back in there and trying to figure out what the issue is and how City Hall can work better for people.
Michael Phillips
If I could jump in, too. One of the things that excites me is the opportunity to be in front of stories and not behind them. Right now, it feels like we only hear about bad things after the contract is signed and everything's done. However, the opportunity to be in those rooms when the decisions are being made and to review the documents in real-time is going to make a real difference in how quickly we can identify these problems before they become full five-alarm fire.
Michael Pope
Michael Phillips, I'd love to get your perspective on the media landscape here. In recent years, we've seen a number of startups. There's been Cardinal News, Axios, and The Mercury. Where do you see the richmonder fitting into this evolving media landscape that we're in?
Michael Phillips
What I love about being a nonprofit is that we don't have to be everything to everybody. We don't have to compete with everybody. I think BizSense does a phenomenal job covering the business scene. I don't want to compete with them. They're good at doing that job. I want to be in places where the job is not getting done. I want to be having a voice in those areas. Look at Axios; they cover culture, food, and drink as well as anybody. Good reporting is being done in this city. You think about V.P.M.s feature storytelling; that's very good. We want to lift up those voices, too. We want to say, Hey, we are part of an ecosystem with these people. How can we contribute? How can we help? I've been all around the city; I think I've been to every coffee shop over the last six months. I'm talking to a lot of people, and the one thing you hear is, what's going on? We feel we're disconnected from the city and its workings. That's going to be the core thing we provide, keeping an eye on the city. Introduce yourself to the people you need to know. What are they doing, and why are they doing it? We feel that's the real vacancy or opportunity, and we're going to sprint into that and hopefully carve out a little area for ourselves in The Richmonder.
Michael Pope
Graham, you're returning to this beat; you covered the city in the past. I bet you've got lots of thoughts on where you want to go with this. Can you give us a preview? Maybe not the specific stories, but the general areas you're interested in exploring.
Graham Moomaw
I think the mayor's race is obviously going to be my main focus. We're launching in September, and that is going to be the big story. We're coming to the end of Levar Stoney's two terms in office. I think, city-wide, it's an opportunity for people to reconnect with City Hall and the mayoral candidates. Allow those running for office to pitch themselves. It's an opportunity for a reset and promising to bring a new attitude, a new culture, and change to City Hall. But what I'd like to first sit down with all those mayoral candidates and get beyond talking points and platitudes. To really drill down on their specific policies. What actionable steps would they take when they get into office. I think that's where we will be able to distinguish ourselves. Sarah, Michael, and I have experience covering elections and campaigns. Other people are covering the mayoral race well, but I think we're going to go heavy right out of the gate and hopefully start to make a name for ourselves.
Michael Pope
There are two news areas there. Obviously, it is the candidates and the issues of the campaign. But there's also this story of the Stoney era coming to an end. It feels like the mayoralty. I hate that word, mayoralty; the time that Levar Stoney has served has been a time of extremely consequential stuff that's gone on during his years in office. That's part of the current story of Richmond, isn't it? Michael Phillips, I'll give that one to you first. What do we make of the era of Levar Stoney?
Michael Phillips
I want to think even bigger. We have the freedom to untether ourselves from what's the fire of the day or what's the story of the day? We can say what the big picture thing is that we need to analyze. We need to weigh in on this and educate people about the bigger picture. We've had several strong mayors under this form of government; is it working? Does it need to be changed? It's a good time to ask the big picture questions about city government. How should it be structured, and how can it work best for everybody? We're not going to be afraid to ask those questions. What I love about Graham and Sarah is that they have the same commitment. We're going to make it readable. It's not going to be dense, wonky, or jargony. We're going to bring these issues to you in an accessible way. I'm excited to get a chance to ask some of those questions that I don't know the answers to. But I know that we can call people who have those answers. I'm excited to see what they say about it, and we'll relay those answers.
Graham Moomaw
The big picture is also my approach to it. How is the strong mayor form of government, which is still relatively new in Richmond, working or not working? We've had different personalities in that role. We had a former governor, Doug Wilder. We had a former State Delegate and local religious leader, Dwight Jones. Now we have Levar Stoney, who was politically seen as a rising star. He came in with a lot of promise and energy. But I think he's been chewed up by the buzzsaw that can be City Hall and city politics. Where the mayor is expected to be able to solve a whole lot of different problems, but there's some bureaucratic inertia standing in the way. Where it's hard to deliver on their promises. That's what I want to hear most from these new mayoral candidates; how are they going to turn City Hall around?
Michael Pope
Graham, that's what you want to hear from the candidates. I'm curious about what you've already heard from the voters. What are going to be the most pressing and important issues on the minds of voters in this election?
Graham Moomaw
Well, I haven't really gotten onto the beat yet. I haven't been doing too many interviews. But I think the big one is City Hall, which is affordable housing. A lot of people are feeling pinched by the cost of buying a home in Richmond and the property taxes. Schools are a big issue, but that's another one where the mayor can talk about education policy, but they don't really have direct control. That's kind of a complicated thing; what can a mayor even do about schools? Gun violence is going to be a big one. We've seen crime go down in Richmond. However, there have been several high-profile shootings that have been an issue. It's going to depend on what I hear from people when I actually get going in this new role. When I get out to events and get to meet new people. When I sit down with city leaders and hear what's on their minds.
Michael Phillips
I love it. If Graham and I were playing the newlywed game, we would've won because my big three is, first off, housing, affordable housing/ influence of people coming from NoVA and New York, which is raising housing prices for everybody; that's a big issue. Number two is education. It's got to be what's going on in the schools right now. The Richmond school board has had a lot of dysfunction over the last four years. Can a new board fix that? How can they work better with City Hall? Then, number three, which Graham referred to as the politics of day-to-day governance. Can we get a city that can hit the blocking and tackling? Can they get the basics right before we start worrying about big projects?
Michael Pope
You're both expats of the Richmond Times-Dispatch. I'm curious to get your thoughts on the evolving media landscape here. I want to not single out the Richmond Times-Dispatch, but as part of a larger picture of legacy media falling apart, a lot of startups are coming in to try to handle that. Michael Phillips, what do you make of this situation that we find ourselves in? Where legacy media is fading away, and you have these startups attempting to fill that void?
Michael Phillips
Yeah, I'm empathetic to the newspaper's plight. The printed newspaper was such a beast for so long that they called their shots. They set ad rates. They set the agenda in this town. It's tough to evolve from that to a spot online. Where you're competing against everybody else. They had the printing press, they had the ink barrels, and they got to call the shots. Well, online ink is free. We're competing against a lot of people. There's a lot of people in that space. Obviously, John Baliles wrote his newsletter. Everybody fondly remembers Ross Catrow and Good Morning R.V.A. There are so many different voices and viewpoints online. We really want to distinguish ourselves with the fact that we are professional journalists telling the story in an unbiased way, in a way that's going to inform. Hopefully, we can lift all the boats. I'm not here to cannibalize anybody's market share. I truly believe interest in the city of Richmond is good for everybody. It's good for media outlets. It's good for radio outlets. It's good for online blogs. When people are interested in how the city works, they are going to seek out more information and more viewpoints. Hopefully, we can be a part of raising those boats because you've got a lot of people in this city who subscribe to The New York Times and don't read local news. I'm not saying I don't read the New York Times, but I'm saying what happens here is really important, and we have got to get people to the table to care.
Graham Moomaw
It's obviously very tough for the media business right now. There's no foolproof model for sustainability, but all the trends I've seen suggest the future is going to be about small and specialized outlets that reach a highly engaged audience that doesn't have to be particularly huge. I think focusing on a particular city and, hopefully, eventually, a particular region makes that mission pretty clear. Our job is to deliver something valuable enough for our community to see as a civic good, and we want to help it succeed and grow. Even if that means forking over some of their hard-earned cash to do that. I think in for-profit media, there's kind of this big sorting into haves and have-nots. The New York Times is really the only one crushing it because they've built a successful digital subscription model where, in addition to getting some of the best journalism, you get the cooking app, Wordle, Wirecutter, and all their podcasts. People get a true bang for their buck when paying for a New York Times subscription. But that's really hard to replicate at the local or the Metro level. Where the universe of people who are willing to pay $15 or $20 a month is much smaller. I think people can see they're getting a lot less for their money as newspaper chains try to do more with less and employ fewer journalists. I'm optimistic there's going to be enough people in the Richmond area to see the value in what we're doing to make this sustainable.
Michael Phillips
Yeah, we're not naive to the challenges. We are running into some big-time headwinds. Michael, you look at how news organizations have gotten attention and traffic in the past? Number one, Google is a big driver of traffic. What are they doing right now? It's A.I. summaries of stories. They don't drive the traffic anymore. Facebook used to be a big driver of traffic for local news. They've de-emphasized that. People have subscription fatigue; that's a real thing. Netflix went up $4 this week. I don't know why Netflix went up $4 this week, but it's annoying. People have a lot going on in the world. And we're asking them to make room for one more. These are big headwinds, and we've set big goals. We want to have 1,000 people go to richmonder.org and sign up for a membership. Plant their flags and say we're with you. We want this to succeed. We need this for the city, and we're going to be out there banging the drum to make that happen.
Michael Pope
We're having this conversation about the evolving media landscape and how legacy media is fading away. It's important to point out to our listeners that legacy media is still around. They are still doing really good journalism despite the fact there's a much smaller staff. It's not as though legacy media has gone away. They're still around and doing great work. It's just not at the scale they used to be at. Meanwhile, there are all these startups trying to fill the void. We're also having this conversation about the dysfunction at City Hall. All these problems and lack of disclosure. I'm wondering if there's a relationship between those two things. The legacy media is not working at the same level it used to, and the level of dysfunction is the same as that seen at Richmond City Hall. Michael Phillips, is there a relationship between those two things?
Michael Phillips
It's scientifically proven that the Brookings Institute did a study in cities where the daily newspaper folded. When those cities attempted big civic issues or borrowing, they ended up paying about a percentage and a half more in interest, which translated to about $600,000 a year. That's the cost of not having news, not having people in the room, not having representatives. I tell people, yeah, it's $9.95 A month. I'd love for you to pay for it. But know, if you don't pay, you will pay you. You can't afford for this not to exist. You can't afford to not have people in the room when decisions are being made. Studies have repeatedly shown that when people are not in the room looking out for the citizens, they take that as a license to do whatever they want to do.
Graham Moomaw
At The Mercury, I would occasionally get a chance to go out to smaller Virginia communities where there really isn't a local news source. Maybe there used to be a local paper, but it's long gone. Oftentimes, that is where some of the craziest local government stories happen. I think it's relatively obvious that if there's nobody there keeping an eye on what's happening, the people in power tend to feel as though they can take a bigger risk. Or do something a little bit crazier than they might have done if there was a reporter in the room. As a former RTD person, I have no ill will toward the RTD. I hope they're still around, keeping an eye on city hall for many years to come. But part of this, for me, is what the legacy media landscape is going to look like in 5 to 10 years. It feels like a chance to seize control of our own destiny instead of relying on outside forces or a national chain to continue making Richmond news a priority, making sure that a person is going to be there, and keeping an eye on local officials.
Michael Phillips
I think that ownership is a great point. I love a lot of the young reporters at the RTD, Em Holter, Anna Bryson, and Samuel Parker; all of them are working hard. They answer to Illinois, they answer to Iowa, and they answer to out-of-state ownership, which is tough. The people who sign the checks are not in the community. They're not at the grocery store. They do not have to face the citizens. And because of that, the decisions they make are not guided by what's best for the Richmond community. I think that's what I love about this business model. We are as powerful as the community makes us. We answer to the community because we are in Richmond. We're never going to sell out. We're never going to expand this. This is a community effort.
Michael Pope
We have seen city government, at least City Hall, react to the changing media landscape in a way that's probably kind of negative for the city and its citizens. Graham, I'm going to post this question to you. Do you think there's been a shift in how communications professionals engage with the media? I mean, we are in a different landscape now, where legacy media isn't doing the same thing it used to. There are all these startups, and I get the sense there's kind of a changing approach by people who are press secretaries and communications professionals. In that, they may not be as engaged with the media. Not willing to share information, not willing to share documents. Sometimes, I'm not even just responding to emails and calls. Are you getting that sense that there's a changing approach to how the city government and communications people in general react and respond to the media?
Graham Moomaw
Yeah, I think there's some truth to that. Communications people have more ways to get their message out without a reporter being an intermediary. You can post your press release on Twitter or Facebook and get something out completely unfiltered without a nosy reporter asking questions about what you're saying. I think as people in government see the media weakening, they feel there may be less of a sting in getting called out for something. On the State House beat, I have tried to fight that tide and keep people honest. I do think that's one of the challenges as the media gets smaller, and people feel like local news just doesn't matter as much. You can get your message out completely unquestioned. That's all the more reason why it's important to have somebody if something in a press release doesn't make sense. Or, if it's contradictory to something that was said last week or last month, have somebody who can pierce through the press releases and help people understand the history of why something is the way it is. The context of why somebody's acting the way they are gives people a deeper understanding of what's happening that doesn't rely on the city P.R. team to get it to them directly.
Michael Pope
I want to unpack that a little bit. You said something that's really thought-provoking. This is why communications professionals might believe, in the back of their heads, that there's less of a sting. So if Graham is doing a story that may be less of a hit for them today, in this media environment, versus if it was in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and everybody was reading the Richmond Times-Dispatch. That's what I'm saying here. So, Michael Phillips, I'm wondering, is it possible for a startup media organization to have the same kind of impact that legacy journalism used to have?
Michael Phillips
I can do a lot of things, but that one's out of my control. That's up to the people. That's up to how many people subscribe. It's up to how many people read. It's up to how many people say we trust The Richmonder to bring us our news every day. If we represent 500 people, the mayor's probably gonna blow us off and give us a wave that they don't need to engage with you. If we represent 10,000 people. If you have 10,000 people in the city who are saying, we want this news; we need this news, Graham and Sarah speak for me. Now, those questions get answered. That's part of why we're out there. We're out here doing this tour. We're lobbying for people to sign up. Go to Richmonder.org and put your email address. We'd love for you to sign up for a membership. Every person who does that gives us more power. It gives us more ability to say when we go to elected representatives that we are speaking on behalf of the people we want that mandate. We would love for people to join the cause, join what we're doing, and say it's important for me to know what's going on. That's why I subscribe to The Richmonder. That's why I read The Richmonder. If public officials don't answer those questions and aren't cooperative, it's going to end poorly for them.
Graham Moomaw
We obviously have limited control over what you know the P.R. people are going to do. They're going to do what they're going to do regardless. But I think the way that we can help balance the scales on that score is to do everything in our power to build trust and credibility with readers. When we say, here are the facts, and here's the truth, people tend to believe it. Part of the problem is that trust in the media has fallen precipitously. It's worse at the national level than it is at the local level. But I think operating under the professional norms of journalism, under all the ethical rules about how, if you're going to write something negative about somebody, you give them a chance to respond. Don't write a story that just confirms your prior assumptions; be open to new information that's going to change your mind on an issue. Operating fairly, independently, and in good faith, I think, is all we can do to build trust with readers and hopefully have a better chance of it mattering when we say the city is doing something wrong.
Michael Pope
On the topic of building that trust with the readers and building a relationship with the city. Michael Phillips, I'm wondering about community engagement. Are you going to be putting together meet-the-journalist events where people can meet Sarah Vogelsong and Graham Moomaw? Where can they ask them questions and interact with him?
Michael Phillips
Yeah, we want to be in the community. We want to be out there listening to people. It's not that we want to go tell people how it is; we want to go listen and ask what the stories are. What are the things that matter to you? I want to go to all nine city council districts in the next month and tell people about The Richmonder and ask them what we can do for you. We're a nonprofit news outlet. We answer to the community. We answer to our readers, our members, and our subscribers. We appreciate them, and we want people to know when they email us and give us ideas, we are listening. We need that feedback; we feed off of that. We're here because of you. We're not here to go be Moses up on the mountain, and here's the word, everybody, take it, and you can't question it. We want to know what you want us to look into? What are the things that matter to you? That's going to inform our coverage? We've got a ton of people helping out with that. We're going to have listening tour-style events going all over the city. I'm really excited about being able to engage with the community. That gets me fired up.
Graham Moomaw
That is a big part of what I'm going to do when I get on this beat. I will sit down and meet with whoever wants to meet with me. I want to connect with city council members and with every candidate running for office. With as many civic groups and as many neighborhood leaders as I can. Because I'm not going to pretend that I can slide into this new role and instantly know everything that's happening. We are a very small team, and we're going to be very reliant on regular people to be our eyes and ears in the city. Helping us figure out what our priority should be and what matters to regular people as we start this new endeavor.
Michael Pope
I really appreciate you coming to Pod Virginia. One last question: Your website will launch on September 9, 2024. I'm curious about what the one-year anniversary will look like, and when the calendar rolls around to September 9, 2025, Michael Phillips, what will you have accomplished?
Michael Phillips
I love that. I hope we've grown our staff. Everybody who comes on board helps us grow the staff. I don't know if we'll be there in one year, but in two years, I'd love to be in Chesterfield as well. Expanding to a regional scope. Be in operation, as are the eyes and ears of the Richmond region. That's certainly a long-term goal for us. I think we're going to make an impact. I think we're going to make an impact right away. You heard Graham; he's got the right approach to what we do, and Sarah's got the same approach. She is well respected. When she calls people, they know they're going to get a fair hearing. They're going to be well-represented in what they say. I hope people read the newsletter, read the website, and say, I need to make this a part of my life. I need to be civically involved. And reading The Richmonder is a great way to do it. I hope they share it with their friends. I hope they share it with everybody they know. I hope that they help us grow like crazy. We have really big goals, and every new reader we get at Richmonder.org helps fuel us and takes us further to do that. We want to bring this community together. That's a big-picture goal. That's a 10,000-foot goal. We believe what we do can make this city better. It's an audacious claim, but I think we're gonna back it up. I think a year from now, you're gonna say, dang, we see the difference quality journalism can make in a community.
Michael Pope
Same question to you. Graham Moomaw, when you have the one-year anniversary party next September, what will you accomplish with your reporting at Richmond City Hall?
Graham Moomaw
I think people, seeing that we have quickly shown that you can provide value with a pretty small team for not a whole lot of money. We can punch above our weight, and the end result of what we do is that it will be a community that feels better informed, better connected, and better equipped to make decisions about how the city should be run.
Michael Pope
You have been listening to part of the founding team for the new news organization, The Richmonder. Michael Phillips and Graham Moomaw, thanks for joining us.
Michael Phillips
You're very welcome.
Graham Moomaw
Thanks for having us.