The History of The Charlotte Ledger
MARCH 11, 2019
Three months after losing his job when the magazine he wrote for shut down, Tony Mecia writes a 1,500-word newsletter, posts it online, emails the link to a handful of friends and posts it on his Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. He called it “The Charlotte Ledger,” and it had a round-up of Charlotte-area business news. “The plan is to round up the most important local business news in a lively and interesting way, add original content and analysis, and deliver it to your inbox three mornings a week,” he wrote at the time.
MARCH 15, 2019
With a tip from a real estate source, The Ledger gets its first big scoop — the sale of Hall Family Farm in Ballantyne to Novant Health, in what would become Novant Health Ballantyne Medical Center. Local TV stations and publications subsequently report the story (without mentioning The Ledger).
MARCH 31, 2019
By the end of March, The Ledger’s newsletter hits 100 subscribers.
JULY 17, 2019
The Ledger hits 1,000 subscribers.
JANUARY 2020
The Ledger signs on two newsletter sponsors, T.R. Lawing Realty and StretchLab, representing the first revenue for the company.
JANUARY 7, 2020
The Ledger announces nominations are open for its first 40 Over 40 Awards program, which “honors and celebrates those who are making mighty contributions to this place we all call home — even if they happen to be born in the 1970s or earlier.” At the time we wrote that we were “determined to find the unheralded over-40s in our midst.” It has become an annual celebration honoring 40 remarkable people each year since 2020.
FEBRUARY 25, 2020
The Ledger announces it will expand to newsletters four days a week and make two of those days available for paying members only, for $9 a month or $99 a year. In the first two weeks, 222 readers pay a total of more than $23,000 — a strong early indication that the business was filling a void.
MID-MARCH 2020
Covid hits and the world starts shutting down. The Ledger, newly flush with a little bit of cash, starts hiring freelancer writers and expands for the next few months to 7 days a week of smart, local news coverage to keep the community informed in the middle of the crisis.
APRIL 2020
The Ledger hires Cristina Bolling as managing editor. She had been a Charlotte Observer reporter for more than 20 years. Cristina and Tony had worked together early in their careers. Cristina, in a letter to Ledger readers, wrote: “Tony and I are the same mission-inspired journalists that we were in 2000. Only now we are far more seasoned reporters, armed with the instincts, the contacts, the institutional knowledge and the confidence that we hope will earn and keep your trust.”
MAY 11, 2021
The Ledger announces the debut of its second and third newsletters: Transit Time, a free weekly edition on local transit and transportation issues, in partnership with WFAE and UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute; and Ways of Life, a weekly newsletter for paying members with inspiring and heartwarming obituaries of people in our community.
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021
The Ledger hits 10,000 newsletter subscribers. More than 2,200 are paying members.
FEBRUARY 10, 2022
The Ledger introduces its fourth newsletter, Fútbol Friday, a free weekly newsletter on Charlotte’s new Major League Soccer team, Charlotte FC.
JUNE 13, 2022
The Ledger hires Lindsey Banks, our former intern and a recent UNC Chapel Hill journalism graduate, as a staff writer and our third full-time employee.
AUGUST 23, 2022
The Ledger releases the first episode of The Charlotte Ledger Podcast, which features conversations on local topics including business, nonprofits, education and more. It starts biweekly but is upgraded to a weekly schedule in January 2023.
OCTOBER 4, 2022
The Ledger announces a partnership with North Carolina Health News to provide stepped-up local coverage of health care and the companies and institutions that deliver it in the Charlotte region.
MAY 19, 2023
The Ledger announces the hiring of Brie Chrisman as our part-time business manager, to help professionalize our operation and make it hum.
SEPTEMBER 4, 2023
The Ledger debuts its election hub for the 2023 local elections, seeking to fill a void in fair, reliable and independent candidate information. We continue to expand the hub in subsequent elections.
DECEMBER 8, 2023
The Ledger hits 20,000 newsletter subscribers. More than 3,500 are paying members.
TO BE CONTINUED...
For more on how we turned The Ledger from nothing into into a trusted local media company, check out Tony Mecia’s 2023 article “Unfrozen caveman journalist: How The Charlotte Ledger evolved from an idea into a legit and growing small business.”