What Is The Mound City Messenger & Why Are We Starting It?
The Mound City Messenger is a volunteer-based, non-commercial news site focused on local news. Outlets big and small have shuttered or announced drastic layoffs, due to the reality that digital advertising simply doesn’t pay enough to keep the proverbial lights on. As is, it appears that there aren’t enough actual reporters left on local publications’ staffs to do much real reporting. That’s why we’re trying to do something different.
How Does It Work?
Our goal is to find people who feel passionate about their communities and the stories that surround us in our daily lives. This site is non-commercial, meaning that Mound City Messenger won’t be running ads or printing “branded content” that blurs the line between a news story and a paid ad. This will allow us to have far clearer ethical lines, which have become increasingly rare in our local print news landscape.
What Does The Mound City Messenger Cover?
The Mound City Messenger will have a focus on local affairs and politics, but that’s not all. We’ll also be reporting on both organized and unorganized labor, as most workers aren’t in unions. We want our reporting to be about real things. Sure, there will probably be strikes to cover, but we also want to report on the social part of unionism and worker organizing. Having to go to work to pay your bills is something most people can relate to. So, we’re going to talk about it.
Mound City Messenger will also produce arts and culture coverage. This will largely be confined to smaller spaces, including unofficial DIY venues. As a DIY website, our affinity to DIY arts and music is natural. On top of that, we hope to cover the literature scene and even contribute to said scene by publishing poems and short stories submitted by local writers. We will have an events calendar and all of the things one has come to expect from publications that cover visual arts, music, theater, etc. We even hope to have original, locally-produced comic strips as a regular feature, as well as folks working on podcasts that feature the local musicians, writers, and visual artists we cover in our articles.
What local publication is complete without a Sports section? We’re looking for people who are interested in covering local wrestling and other sports and related entertainment that don’t get many column inches in the main local outlets. There’s plenty of coverage about MLB, NFL, and NBA games. Why not a regular roller derby column? We’re definitely looking for more wrestling coverage. There have to be at least a few pinball and bowling leagues that could be covered. Do you participate in or watch these events and want to spread the word about how much fun they are? We’re here to help you spread the word!
We Will Not Normalize Corruption.
We live in a fabulously corrupt city, where said corruption has been almost completely normalized as “how things work.” Just because it has been normalized, the negative effects of corruption continue.
We’re Focusing On Quality, Not Quantity
We strive to be realistic about what a volunteer-driven outlet can produce. We won’t prioritize posting daily content. Instead, The Mound City Messenger will focus on releasing a reasonable amount of unique content on a weekly basis. The goal is to make high-quality news and cultural content accessible and to cover angles and events that are often ignored by the mainstream outlets. This site will focus on quality, not quantity.
How Can You Help?
We’re gonna need quite a few writers to create a steady stream of articles. As a volunteer-driven publication, we can only expect so much from each writer. We know people are really busy. This is a communal passion project, and that’s one reason why we’re looking for people who want to write about the people and things in our metro area that bring them joy. This will only succeed if a decent number of passionate St. Louisans who step up to contribute their time and talent.
Mound City Messenger invites guest OpEds, but we also want our opinion content to relate our hard-news stories. . Without that context, we’d be giving readers one side of an issue without the information necessary to form their own informed opinion. We want to avoid this common trap.
Are you interested in helping? Reach out to us at editorial@moundcitymessenger.com or via the site’s submission form.