Over the weekend I shared with readers that we need to finish strong in our March fundraiser to reach a monthly goal of $1,500 in contributions.
In the days since, we’ve gotten a nice boost, and thanks to all of you who have donated!
With a week left in March, we’re around $750 in reader contributions. I’d like to see us get to $1,000 for March, and I think that can be done—and we’d like to get your help to do it.
The state of local news in many communities is dire. In East Cobb, we launched this site more than seven years ago to address that dearth here, and many of you have responded.
We think we’ve built up a good following of engaged residents who appreciate what happens here, and that turns to East Cobb News to find out.
We have nearly 9,300 newsletter subscribers, for example, and that has grown organically. We appreciate people spreading the word about East Cobb News, which is produced for you—the citizen, voter, homeowner and stakeholder in this community.
We don’t charge readers, because we believe local news should be accessible to all. But we do have expenses, and we are trying to expand what we cover as we develop a news business that is unique to this community.
We got some encouraging messages in recent days from readers who appreciated our coverage of concerns over anti-Semitic incidents in local schools.
That’s the kind of coverage readers have come to expect from East Cobb News, which blends traditional news reporting with useful community news and information.
We’re no non-sense, and try to ensure that the news we provide you is straightforward and relevant to you.
If you find value in what you get from East Cobb News, please consider making a donation today, if you haven’t already.
We’re asking for a $6 donation on a recurring monthly basis, but you can contribute whatever amount you like, either monthly, annually or on a one-time basis.
Press Patron, our online platform is safe, secure and easy to use, and you can manage your account however you like.
Click here or on the links in this column to support East Cobb News today!
For the month of March we’ve been asking readers to contribute a total of $1,500 for our donation drive.
With a little more than a week to go, we’re less than halfway there, and we’d like to ask those of you who have not contributed to consider doing so.
As of this writing, we’ve received $625 in donations thus far in March, and thanks to all of you who have provided support! Your generosity helps us as we strive to give you local news that you love, and the kind of daily community connection that you can’t find anywhere else.
East Cobb News was created in 2017 to serve readers and advertisers directly, without the filter of a corporate media organization. We don’t do the news for anyone else but those people who live and work here and who are invested in this place that we call home.
We are truly local, independent, and totally focused on the news needs of our citizens, and the local businesses who provide the primary financial support for what we do.
As little “indies” or mom-and-pops, hyperlocal publishers around the country that I know are utterly devoted to their communities too.
We’re embedded with our friends, neighbors, fellow church members, Little League parents and PTA volunteers on a daily basis. It’s one of our biggest advantages, in fact, but there are tradeoffs.
I know one such publisher in Wisconsin, whom I met at a publishers’ conference a few years ago. This week she revealed something truly startling to me.
Fortunately we haven’t been in that situation, but we can relate to what it takes to keep East Cobb News up and running, with fresh and relevant stories that really matter to you, and to continue to build a small business that’s sustainable for many years to come.
Unlike much of corporate media and like my friend’s publication, we don’t have a paywall, because we believe local news needs to be accessible to everyone.
But if you value what you get nearly every day from East Cobb News (we try to take Sundays off!), please consider supporting us today.
March is the start of spring, and East Cobb News is springing into a new season with vigor and commitment, with a passion for serving this community that is from the heart.
We want to continue to make it better and more useful for our readers, and we’d like to have your help in doing so.
We’re asking for a $6 donation on a recurring monthly basis, but you can contribute whatever amount you like, either monthly, annually or on a one-time basis.
Press Patron, our online platform is safe, secure and easy to use, and you can manage your account however you like.
Just click the link below and thank you so much! As my Wisconsin publishing friend told her readers this week, “thank you for reading, for sharing, and for believing in the power of local journalism.”
Click here or on the links in this column to support East Cobb News today! Thank you!
In journalism circles, trust is a high value. So is credibility.
They’re core values, in fact, for reporters, editors and news organizations everywhere—hard to obtain, easy to squander and almost possible to retrieve if they’re ever lost.
But many in the public are skeptical, especially as traditional outlets continue their rapid decline.
I was reading recently about how the decline of “objectivity” as an organizing principle for journalists has coincided with mass layoffs at many of our leading newspapers, and as political tensions have been roiling over the last decade.
By “objectivity,” I’m referring more to the process of news gathering than anything else. Pure objectivity is impossible, because journalists are subjective creatures like all other humans.
We all have our biases, but I was trained early on to set aside my views for the job at hand—informing the public. That’s just basic professionalism, but it seems to be a lost value these days.
The issue at the heart of the above link—and it’s rather long and dense piece that’s primarily of interest to people like me—is that some journalists seem to be doing their work for other journalists, or to go along with the trendy issues in our profession.
Quite often, they have little to do with journalism. The career fallout has been harsh, and I know a number of people who have been affected by these reductions. I feel their pain, because twice I’ve been forced to leave corporate media jobs.
At East Cobb News, being independent and being devoted to local news means we can take a different, more authentic approach. In fact, I started this site to get back to what’s really important—reporting directly for the readers of this community.
Last week I mentioned that one such person here in East Cobb donated $300 to our March fundraising drive. I was so deeply touched, and I e-mailed to ask why. Here’s what she told me:
“I was responsive to your request for donations because I so appreciate your service to the East Cobb community in keeping us informed of happenings (big and small) that matter to our daily lives and bring us closer together. And you do so in a manner that is non-partisan and straightforward.”
If I could copy and paste and laminate my mission statement for all to see, this is how it would read.
I’m deeply honored to know people here feel this way about what we’ve done at East Cobb News, and I’ve heard from others who feel the same way.
Of course, there are those who think we could do better, or that we’re biased somehow. Some think we’re in cahoots with the Democratic-led Cobb commissioners, others think we go too easy on the Republican-majority Cobb school board.
Others still say we go too hard on either.
Depending on who you ask, we’re either Commie libtards or MAGA Trumpers.
That’s a very vast ocean indeed, and we’re somewhere in between.
We’ve built East Cobb News on the premise that party affiliation or political/social/cultural views aren’t as important as community affinity.
And we built it especially for readers, regardless of their views, much less those of this editor and publisher.
This month we set a goal of raising $1,500 from readers. About halfway through, we’re only a third of the way there. But I think we can reach that number, and even exceed it, because I know there are plenty of you who share the above reader’s appreciation for what East Cobb News means to you.
If you have already donated, thank you! If you have not, please support the work we do. If you value what we do—based on the values of trust and credibility—consider a modest monthly recurring donation. You can give an amount of your choosing, either monthly, annually or on a one-time basis.
Unlike other corporate-owned outlets, East Cobb News does not charge for reader access. While we’re a for-profit entity, we’re not unlike those who ask readers for their assistance in not just preserving, but strengthening local news.
Nor do we charge for our newsletter—one of the more popular ways readers keep up with East Cobb News—and we invite public comments on all our stories. We’ve got a healthy, vibrant community that comes online to discuss the top headlines of the day, and I’m proud of what’s been built up here.
Press Patron, our online platform is safe, secure and easy to use, and you can manage your account however you like.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Click here or on the links in this column to support East Cobb News today! Thank you!
Well, I don’t know what to say to this but: Wow!
When I asked readers last week to help us get to $1,500 in donations for the month of March, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I checked the totals thus far.
We’re already around a quarter of the way there, after only a few days!
Thank you to all of you who have donated in March, and especially a reader who contributed $300! That’s the biggest single donation we’ve received in this and previous requests for reader support.
I’m so touched by that gesture, but we know that not everybody can donate that much.
When I started the “1500 Club” it was with the goal of having 1,500 readers make recurring monthly donations.
I still want to reach that figure, but for the month of March, we’re simply asking for $1,500 in reader donations.
In February we surpassed the $800 mark, and I think this new goal is definitely achievable.
It’s a big goal, but this news site was founded on big dreams, and we’ve been able to do so much more than I initially envisioned.
I want to continue to grow this site and its role in our community and give it a lasting presence for many years!
If what you see here at East Cobb News is of any value to you, please click below to show your support.
We’re asking for $6 a month as a recurring monthly donation, but you can give an amount of your choosing, either monthly, annually or on a one-time basis.
Your contribution powers the work of East Cobb News in serving this community like no one else—with daily stories about local government, schools, public safety, small business, transportation, the arts, community service and more—and grows an engaged audience as a result.
East Cobb News is among dozens of local independent online news sites that have emerged in recent years to offer grassroots news for their communities with an authentic local touch from publishers who are fully invested in everything that goes on there.
Unlike other corporate-0wned outlets, East Cobb News does not charge for reader access. While we’re a for-profit entity, we’re not unlike those who ask readers for their assistance in not just preserving, but strengthening local news.
Nor do we charge for our newsletter—one of the more popular ways readers keep up with East Cobb News—and we invite public comments on all our stories. We’ve got a healthy, vibrant community that comes online to discuss the top headlines of the day, and I’m proud of what’s been built up here.
Press Patron, our online platform is safe, secure and easy to use, and you can manage your account however you like.
I promise, my message to you for this last week of February won’t go longer than that!
I just wanted to thank readers for their contributions as we surpassed January’s donations totals!
We’re nearing the $800 mark, but I’d like to ask those of you who haven’t contributed to consider doing so today!
I think we can get to $1,000 in donations during these last few days of the shortest month, so please give what you can today, on a recurring monthly or annual or one-time basis.
Your donation will go a long way to help us continue to give you the local news you love!
Thanks so much!
If what you see here at East Cobb News is of any value to you, please click below to show your support.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
Not just near the end of another month, but also close to surpassing our fundraising drive goal for February.
With just about a week left, we’re around $150 short of January’s totals, and in the shortest month of the year!
What we’d like to do during this stretch run of February is not only eclipse that $750 mark, but get to $1,000 for the month in reader donations.
We’ve been asking readers to donate as little as $6 a month—it can be more if you like or any amount you choose—as we strive to add 1,500 new recurring contributors through the spring.
That’s a big goal, to be sure, but East Cobb News was born on big dreams—to serve you, our readers, with professionally reported news and useful community information—that serves you and our advertisers.
We rely on multiple sources of revenue to keep giving you local news that you love, and we’d love to have your support if you haven’t donated yet.
After several years of diligently building not just an engaged audience, but cultivating dynamic relationships with so many of you, we’re asking for your support today to help sustain this community resource.
If what you see here at East Cobb News is of any value to you, please click below to show your support.
Your contribution powers the work of East Cobb News in serving this community like no one else—with daily stories about local government, schools, public safety, small business, transportation, the arts, community service and more—and grows an engaged audience as a result.
East Cobb News is among dozens of local independent online news sites that have emerged in recent years to offer grassroots news for their communities with an authentic local touch from publishers who are fully invested in everything that goes on there.
We’re also citizens, parents, homeowners, business owners and volunteers like our neighbors. It’s just not where we work, but the place we call home.
At Eastsider LA, publisher Jesus Sanchez personally thanks his readers who contribute, because he knows they also are the sources of news tips, engagement ideas and suggestions for how to make his publication better.
Indeed, we’ve gotten advertising interest and business at East Cobb News because of the stories we publish—we’re truly hyperlocal, and many small businesses here find that to be an ideal way to reach new customers.
So thank you to recent contributors Barbara, Walter, Trevor, Eric, Arlys, Karen, Kristie, Amy, Michael and so many others for your support of East Cobb News.
With donations from just a few more of you, we can get to $1,000 this month.
Unlike other corporate-0wned outlets, East Cobb News does not charge for reader access. While we’re a for-profit entity, we’re not unlike those who ask readers for their assistance in not just preserving, but strengthening local news.
We’d like to suggest a monthly payment of $6—you can contribute more if you like, or at whatever amount of your choosing.
Our online platform is safe, secure and easy to use, and you can manage your account however you like.
With about a week and a half left in February, we’re asking you to help support the work we do here at East Cobb News, and have embarked on a fundraising drive to solicit your donations.
Last week I indicated that we want to surpass January’s total of $750 in reader support, and that remains the goal. It’s definitely doable!
But we need your help!
We’ve suggested a $6 monthly donation on a recurring basis, and many of you have answered the call. Thank you so much for contributing!
In fact, most of our contributions are of the recurring variety, and that’s ideal.
But you can give any amount you like, and in other time increments. Here’s a sampling of some recent contributions:
$50 one-time
$20 one-time
$12 monthly
$60 annual
. . . in addition to the $6 monthly donations.
If you value what you get from East Cobb News, please consider donating today.
Unlike other media outlets, we don’t charge for the news. We want to keep it that way, and you support will further our efforts to keep our content accessible for all.
We want to make it easy for you to donate. We have a safe and secure online payment system, Press Patron, that specializes helping local news publishers.
After you sign up, you can designate the size and frequency of your contribution, and manage your account easily from there.
Here’s what we need to match January’s total: 35 of you coming on board at $6 a month on a recurring basis.
That’s all! We have tens of thousands of followers, from social media platforms to newsletter subscribers. We know there are plenty more than 35 of you that value East Cobb News.
As we head into the stretch run of the shortest month, we’d love to have more come on board as financial supporters of East Cobb News, where everything we do is for you!
Please consider giving today, at whatever amount suits you. We appreciate your support!
That’s the first thing I thought this week when I saw the outpouring of support for our February fundraising drive.
We’re trying to surpass the January total of $750 in reader contributions, and halfway through the campaign we’re more than halfway past that mark.
Thank you so much to all who have contributed!
Can we get past $1,000! I think so, and I hope you will help!
Especially encouraging is that most of this reader revenue is for recurring monthly donations.
We’ve been asking readers to donate as little as $6 a month—it can be more if you like or any amount you choose—as we strive to add 1,500 new recurring contributors through the spring.
That’s a big goal, to be sure, but East Cobb News was born on big dreams—to serve you, our readers, with professionally reported news and useful community information—that serves you and our advertisers.
We rely on both sources of revenue to keep giving you local news that you love, and we’d love to have your support if you haven’t donated yet.
After several years of diligently building not just an engaged audience, but cultivating dynamic relationships with so many of you, we’re asking for your support today to help sustain this community resource.
If what you see here at East Cobb News is of any value to you, please click below to show your support.
Unlike other corporate-0wned outlets, East Cobb News does not charge for reader access. While we’re a for-profit entity, we’re not unlike those who ask readers for their assistance in not just preserving, but strengthening local news.
Simply put, there’s nothing else like East Cobb News in this market. There’s nobody else coming to you every day, several times a day, with general-interest news like local government and schools, public safety, small business and real estate, arts and entertainment, recreation, community events and those who are helping others in need.
That’s because East Cobb News was designed to serve everyone invested in this community,
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we hear so many compliments from you about what you get here.
Now is the time to show that you value what East Cobb News means for you.
We’d like to suggest a monthly payment of $6—you can contribute more if you like, or at whatever amount of your choosing.
Our online platform is safe, secure and easy to use, and you can manage your account however you like.
I wish the Georgia General Assembly had not drawn Jerica Richardson out of her seat on the Cobb Board of Commissioners during reapportionment in 2022.
It was unfair and unprecedented, as she stated many times during a two-plus-years legal battle over county electoral maps that confused citizens and cost them fruitless taxpayer-funded court challenges.
But it was not illegal.
When Cobb Republican lawmakers sidestepped local courtesy in ignoring county delegation maps and filed their own maps, it smelled of the partisan odor that comes with redistricting.
As it has for decades, and always will.
Richardson, an articulate and intelligent thirty-something Georgia Tech graduate, entered office in December 2020 full of new energy, new ideas and a younger generational vibe, and was stepping in the very big shoes left behind by Bob Ott.
She was conscientious in forming a “community cabinet” of citizen advisors on such topics as education, land use and traffic, and held online “community huddles” to preview meeting agendas.
She brought young people into the fold in myriad ways, including inviting high school students to conduct “capstone” projects on pressing local issues.
Richardson also worked with the local Brazilian community, a sizable contingent of citizens in the East Cobb and Cumberland-Smyrna area in particular.
These were admirable and endearing efforts to invite greater participation in civic life, and they are a positive part of the legacy she leaves behind in her sole term in office.
Halfway through, the District 2 Richardson had been elected to serve no longer included her East Cobb home.
But when Richardson and her two fellow Democratic colleagues conjured up dubious “home rule” claims in adopting those unapproved delegation maps, and using them to conduct county business, those actions were just as wrong.
They were also violations of the Georgia Constitution–as ruled by two judges in Cobb County–which gives sole county reapportionment powers to the legislature.
Richardson’s final appeal to remain in office—her term officially expired Dec. 31, and she didn’t seek re-election—was ignored Tuesday by the Georgia Court of Appeals.
She was trying to hold on until a special election to decide her successor is determined in April.
In recent months, following those emphatic court rulings of unconstitutionality, Richardson chose her most bristling rhetoric of the whole saga.
While she said at times her legal battle wasn’t about her but the rights of communities to draw electoral maps, at the very end Richardson claimed she had been the primary target all along:
“For the last four years, this office has been under attack by the entire state infrastructure because change is scary for so many. Unfortunately, the unknown is exploited so that power can be transferred from the hands of many to the hands of few.”
That three black Democratic women formed the ruling majority on the commission in a Cobb County dominated for decades by white male Republican elected officials is hard to ignore.
For most of her time in office, Richardson didn’t play to those or other cultural issues.
But at the height of the tensions in August, Democratic Commissioner Monique Sheffield referred to the partisan sparring on the all-female board, especially over the maps, as “political Bloods and Crips.”
Richardson’s vague comments this week are a bit much to absorb. “The entire state infrastructure” was out to get her. Really? In a state with 159 counties? And what exactly is the change that is feared?
We are left to guess.
As for the charge of transferring power, it’s very likely Democrats will still hold a 3-2 majority after the special elections.
The new District 2 includes areas along I-75, from Kennesaw and Marietta to Smyrna, which are not very Republican.
What I wish Richardson would have had done as she took her final bows was to offer an apology.
To those residents of East Cobb who for the last two years were uncertain over who their commissioner was supposed to be.
And for what’s estimated to be $1.5 million for the special elections in District 2 and District 4, after the primaries last year were voided because the “home rule” maps were used.
Acknowledging the chaos and turmoil that was caused by this dispute was a missed opportunity for Richardson.
When Republican Commissioner JoAnn Birrell of East Cobb, who’s not one to relish conflict or use profanity, called this episode“two years of hell,” it’s worth noting.
Yes, Richardson had the right to appeal her removal.
And yes, as Cupid once claimed, “a great harm” was done to Cobb by the legislature in bypassing local delegation courtesies during reapportionment.
But Cupid, who also has a law degree, had to have known where this dispute would end.
In decrying norm-breaking, you don’t break other norms. Especially the law.
That will also be a part of Richardson’s legacy, and that’s disappointing.
We’ve been committed to making our content free to all, and to build sustainability for the long haul. East Cobb News is reader-focused community news, whose ultimate aim is to serve you.
What I’m calling our “1500 Club” is continuing into the spring, with the goal of getting 1,500 readers to join the ranks of recurring donors.
Yes, that’s an ambitious goal, and so is our goal for February—500 new monthly contributors. Thanks to those of you who have contributed.
We raised $750 in reader revenue in January, higher than in recent months, and I’m very grateful to all of you for supporting the work of East Cobb News.
We also had an outstanding traffic month to start off the year, particularly with multiple weather events, so we know that you come to rely on East Cobb News.
With your help, we want our fundraising total to surpass that in February.
We recommend a monthly contribution of $6 a month—that’s a couple of cups of drive-through coffee— on our safe and secure payment platform, Press Patron. Signing up is easy, and you can manage your account from there as well.
Local news outlets of all kinds are asking readers to help support the work they do, and not just online startups like East Cobb News.
Did you know that TheMarietta Daily Journal, which has been around for more than 100 years, has begun what it calls the Cobb Journalism Fund, to support its editorial efforts?
Through the non-profit Cobb Community Fund, that effort has generated more than $100,000 to fund a reporting position and related expenses for enterprise and investigative journalism.
The paper has done some good work through that vehicle, yet it still charges readers a subscription.
East Cobb News does not do that and has no plans to impose a paywall. We want local news to be accessible to everyone.
We’re not asking for anywhere near that total of money.
But frankly, we really need more readers to step up and support the work of East Cobb News. We’ve got a sizable and engaged audience, and know that you appreciate what you get here every day and in our Sunday newsletter.
We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we hear so many compliments from you about what you get here.
Now is the time to show that you value what East Cobb News means for you.
We’d like to suggest a monthly payment of $6—you can contribute more if you like, or at whatever amount of your choosing.
As you can tell from the stories and other content here, East Cobb News gives you local news and useful community information in a simple, straight-forward way.
Similarly, inviting you to join the 1500 Club is a simple ask. I’ll get straight to the point:
We really need you to help us sustain this community news resource, now it its eighth year of operation.
East Cobb News is a for-profit business, just like the MDJ and many of the traditional local media outlets that are also asking readers for financial support.
Please consider giving today, at whatever amount suits you. We appreciate your support!
I took a little bit of time out on Saturday to enjoy the warmth and the sun at East Cobb Park, and couldn’t think of a better way to start the month of February.
We’re asking for 500 donors in February—will you be among them? Thanks for your support!
January was a terrific start to 2025 in terms of traffic, with more than 70,000 unique visitors coming to East Cobb News to find out what’s going on in the community.
That’s roughly one-third of a very big coverage area, and it was gratifying to see the response.
Sometimes the first month of the year is a little slow, but winter weather and other events made East Cobb News a must-visit for many of you, and we’re grateful for your readership.
We are a truly reader-focused independent news site devoted to covering what makes this community tick, and one of our revenue sources comes from you, our readers.
We ask because unlike other local news outlets we don’t have any paywalls and we want East Cobb News to be accessible to one and all.
This is becoming more common with sites like ours. Our friends at decaturish.com recently completed a successful fundraising effort, as readers there appreciate the value of that community news resource that covers not just Decatur, but a large portion of DeKalb County.
Similarly, last week East Cobb News unveiled a new reader fundraising drive called the 1500 Club that we’re asking all of you to consider supporting.
Into the spring, we want to get 1500 of our readers to become recurring monthly donors—for as little as $6 a month—to support the work of East Cobb News.
We thank those of you who have signed up in the last week, and as February gets underway, we’ve set a big goal to reach—500 new donors.
You can contribute whatever amount you’d like, but please consider giving on a monthly recurring basis. It’s the best way to support the work of East Cobb News to give you the local news that you love!
We have a secure online payment system, Press Patron, that works with local news publishers to solicit support from their readers.
Press Patron is safe, secure and easy to use, and your donation will go directly toward our efforts to cover the East Cobb community like no one else!
I’m deeply honored to be your editor and publisher at East Cobb News! I greatly appreciate your readership as we turn the calendar to 2025.
As a new year unfolds, we are launching a renewed effort to ask readers for their financial support of this community news resource.
We’re calling it the 1500 Club and are asking 1500 of you to sign up to becoming recurring monthly donors of East Cobb News.
That’s a little more than 15 percent of the more than 9,300 newsletter subscribers who get the East Cobb News Digest every week.
East Cobb News content will always be free to readers—unlike other news outlets, we don’t have a paywall. We want this to be accessible for anybody, but we do ask for your support if you feel this of special value to you.
We’d like to suggest a monthly payment of $6—you can contribute more if you like, or at whatever amount of your choosing.
We have a safe, secure online payment system called Press Patron via Stripe that makes it easy to donate, and to keep track of your account.
Press Patron enables local news publishers like me to ask readers like you for support. Many local news outlets, from the more traditional to the likes of East Cobb News, generate revenues from multiple sources to build sustaining businesses.
Your donations will power our expanding coverage of news in East Cobb, the place we call home, and that’s a very busy place!
There’s so much more that we want to cover for you, and in the next couple of months we’d like to have at least 1500 of you sign up to become continuing supporters.
It’s similar to a pledge drive for public radio, but for East Cobb’s only daily, all-online news source.
I’ve explained more about the 1500 Club in the video, and will be sharing more details about this initiative in the coming weeks.
Will you be among the 1500? Consider starting your financial support today, so we can keep giving you the local news that you love! Thanks East Cobb!
While enjoying some days off for the Christmas holiday, I wanted to take some time to thank East Cobb News readers as 2024 draws to a conclusion.
As I write this, we’ve surpassed 1.4 million page views and more than 725,000 unique visitors for the year.
In a year with some eventful happenings, including some major elections, those are good numbers to have.
Our newsletter growth also has been very solid this year, as we recently surpassed 9,300 subscribers.
We’ve done this through the daily grind of sustained news coverage and word-of-mouth promotion, as readers come to us when they want to know what’s happening in this community.
Whether it’s coverage of local government and politics, schools news, crime, traffic, zoning, or new businesses and restaurants, readers have told us repeatedly how much they value what they get in one place—whether it’s daily on our site, via social media postings or through the newsletter.
I also want to thank those of you who have contributed to our continuing readership campaign this year, and our advertisers who appreciate the value of regular exposure to a dedicated, growing audience that makes up the East Cobb News readership.
The deeply hyperlocal focus of all that we do—editorial and advertising—has been a successful formula as we continue in our eighth year of operation.
East Cobb News is all-online, publishing every day, with timely, professionally reported news and useful community information that makes a difference for the people who live here.
That’s who we do this for, and if you like what you see here and you haven’t donated before, consider making a contribution at whatever amount you like.
Simply put, East Cobb News readers are at the center of what this is all about. Unlike many other media outlets, we don’t charge to read our coverage, and we never will. No paywalls here.
As 2025 commences, we want to go more in-depth with the news and features that our readers come to expect.
Our community continues to grow and evolve in many ways, and some of our best story ideas come from you.
So if you have story ideas, news tips, photos or anything else to share that you think might be of interest to our readers, let us hear from you!
I want to hear from you about what you value in East Cobb News, and ask how we can make this site better. I will be sending a reader survey out in early January, and I would appreciate the feedback.
In the meantime, I’d like to wish you all a Happy New Year! We’ll be on a lighter posting schedule for the rest of the year, but stay tuned for our roundup of top stories of the year and other features as we approach New Year’s.
Seasons Greetings East Cobb and thanks for your readership!
Keeping it light and fun: The Atlanta-based Gate City Brass takes a bow after performing a Christmas concert last weekend.
Well, all that’s left now is to enjoy Christmas.
All the rushing around in busy stores and weaving through East Cobb traffic is over.
I don’t know why, but I’m like many who wait until the last minute to tie up loose ends.
But what’s been a festive season is reaching its peak.
While Christians will be celebrating the birth of Jesus on Wednesday, our Jewish neighbors will begin eight days of Hanukkah as well.
It’s a time for all of us, regardless of our religious views—or whether or not we even have them—to step back and take stock of the many blessings we have in our community.
I write this, on Christmas Eve, shortly before attending a candlelight service.
This day has been difficult personally for the last few years because it’s the day my mother began her final journey after a long battle with lung cancer.
But this was always her favorite time of year, and I know she would have enjoyed the Christmas concert at the church I’ve been attending.
Last Sunday, the Atlanta-based Gate City Brass performed at St. Catherine’s Episcopal Church, which has magnificent acoustics in its sanctuary.
For several years, they’ve had a group of members organize three or four concerts a year and invited the public. They asked me to help out with publicity, but for someone who can’t carry a tune across the room, I’ve enjoyed the experience immensely.
The talent and dedication it takes to learn to play music, and do it well, has always amazed me.
The Gate City Brass members arranged many of the Christmas classics that we’re familiar with, and I recorded a couple of those tunes for you to enjoy below.
They’re a bit different than what you may be used to hearing, but these renditions certainly added more fun and enjoyment for the Christmas season for me.
We’ll be taking off Christmas Day but will be back later in the week with more holiday coverage, including a Hanukkah Menorah lighting and other festivities to bid farewell to 2024 and say hello to the new year to come.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
I’m writing as the holiday season is getting underway, and as 2024 heads to its conclusion.
I don’t know about you, but I find hard to believe how quickly this year has transpired.
First of all, thanks to East Cobb News readers for your readership and your financial support.
Now halfway into our eighth year, we’re building readership and sustainability for the long haul.
The challenges facing local news entities are steep, but your support of East Cobb News—financially and otherwise—has been so important.
We made it through another election year, and covered so many stories that matter to the people who live and work here, and we’re proud of our work.
At this time of year, I take pause and take stock of what it means to serve the community.
A few numbers to share: We’re on track to average around 100,00 pageviews a month and 60,000 unique visitors monthly.
That last figure is encouraging, because our coverage area is around 200,000 people. As the only daily all-online news source in this community, it’s heartening to know that so many of you take the time to engage with the content that is published here.
Our newsletter growth also has been very solid this year, as we recently surpassed 9,300 subscribers.
Whether it’s coverage of local government and politics, schools news, crime, traffic, zoning, or new businesses and restaurants, readers have told us repeatedly how much they value what they get in one place—whether it’s daily on our site, via social media postings or through the newsletter.
We really appreciate the financial support as we strive to serve you with more news that’s relevant to you, and as we continue this experiment in redefining what local news can mean for the East Cobb community.
East Cobb News is all-online, publishing every day, with timely, professionally reported news and useful community information that makes a difference for the people who live here.
That’s who we do this for, and if you like what you see here and you haven’t donated before, consider making a contribution at whatever amount you like.
Simply put, East Cobb News readers are at the center of what this is all about. Unlike many other media outlets, we don’t charge to read our coverage, and we never will. No paywalls here.
We offer this news resource as a public service to the community, but we’re also a small business. We want to continue telling the stories of the people that make East Cobb a special place to call home for many years to come.
We also believe that local news and local business go hand-in-hand, and our advertisers are much like our readers—they tell us how much they like how deeply local we are. They want to reach local audiences, and there’s not a better-engaged readership in East Cobb than those who are part of East Cobb News.
But there’s so much more we want to do!
In the coming year, we want to go more in-depth with the news and features that our readers come to expect, especially involving local government and schools.
These activities are always on the front burner, but with November’s election results they’re sure to continue to be in the spotlight.
We also want to highlight the many things that people are doing to make the East Cobb community even better than it is.
In the meantime, I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy New Year!
Seasons Greetings East Cobb and thanks for your readership!
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Tropical Storm Helene’s arrival in our area Friday morning was bound to have a devastating impact, and there’s no better way to illustrate how damaging the storm was than to see what those most affected by it have had to deal with.
When I issued a call-out to readers for photos of storm damage and flooding near them, I was honored that so many bothered to take the time to share what they saw.
One of them is Renae Popkin, a resident of Columns Drive, who sent the photos and video included in this post of the flooding in her yard, the road in front of her home and in the neighborhood.
This was where storm flooding from Helene was worst in East Cobb, and Columns Drive was closed until late Friday afternoon.
In addition to surging storm waters, downed trees and debris in the road made it impassable.
Popkin told us on Friday that there were staff from the Cobb Sheriff’s Office trying to cut the trees and remove pieces from Columns Drive.
When we checked back with her on Saturday, she sent a photo of a portion of the road that’s still blocked off.
“Luckily most of the water has receded!” she said.
(Click the middle button to view the slideshow.)
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While she and her neighbors still have cleaning up to do as they dry off from a very soggy few days, we in East Cobb are breathing a sigh of relief that the damage wasn’t worse.
Only a few thousand people in Cobb County lost power, and the wind gusts that promised to be at tropical-storm levels didn’t materialize as they could have.
We really dodged a catastrophe. When I woke up after daybreak Friday morning, I said a prayer and cried a little.
I won’t lie, I was deeply afraid of what might have happened here. I had my evacuation bag packed and ready to go. My cat slept through the whole thing, right near a window, so perhaps I should have taken that as a clue.
When I see photos and videos of what Helene wrought elsewhere in Georgia, and in the mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee—where whole towns disappeared and doctors, nurses and patients had to be rescued from the top of hospital that had been flooded—tears come to my eyes.
Mostly, I feel a great sense of gratitude that our lives haven’t been ripped apart by the storm like so many others have.
Around 15 Georgians have died, including a first responder. Parts of the city of Valdosta have been leveled. Massive flooding in the metro Atlanta area persists. A million people were without power.
We have so much to be thankful for in East Cobb, and this local news publisher is especially grateful to readers for giving us an up-close glimpse of what even a fraction of a powerful storm can do.
One of the biggest changes in the news business in the digital age is the ease with which everyday people can be citizen-reporters, if you will, relaying their observations, photos and videos with the public.
The last thing I did as the editor of East Cobb Patch was cover the major ice storm of January 2014. Like everyone else, I was hunkered down and frozen in, but readers sent in their information and photos of what their neighborhood looked like, how long it took them to get home, etc.
That’s the Power of Local on display, as it was here again on Friday, in a time of a potential crisis that could have crippled this community.
I deeply appreciate Renae and all the others who shared with us a sense of what it was like out there.
I like to say that readers have helped make East Cobb News better—not just with their contributions but also with their feedback—good, bad or otherwise—to guide me as we continue here.
Thanks to all of you for your readership, and for investing your time with East Cobb News. Please get in touch at wendy@eastcobbnews.com with suggestions, comments, etc. I’d love to hear from you!
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Special events, from Avenue East Cobb’s new plaza garden party to church holiday concerts, are a staple of East Cobb News coverage.
Every couple years we like to survey our readership to find out how we can better serve all of you.
Two years ago, as the post-COVID era began, I thought it would be helpful to gauge our readers, and many of you provided very useful feedback.
East Cobb News continues to adapt coverage to make it relevant for you, as we expanded into some more featurized topics and issues, and as we undertake a new Power of Local campaign to drive home how local news, business and communtity-building go hand-in-hand.
While many of you come for the bread-and-butter issues of local government, schools, crime, public safety, development and transportation, others crave the latest restaurant and retail news, enjoy reading about festivals and accomplishments by people in our community, and how we’re offering a helping hand to neighbors in need.
Last year, East Cobb News had its best traffic year ever at nearly 1.7 million pageviews, without a pandemic or elections.
We’ve got election coverage still to come in the fall, but it’s very gratifying to know that East Cobb News readers come to our site, visit our social media channels and subscribe to our newsletter for all kinds of news—that’s what a general-interest news outlet strives to achieve.
So thanks to all of you for your visits! Now we’re asking you to tell us what you think of what you get from East Cobb News.
We love coming to ribbon-cuttings, ranging from the Barnes & Noble to the new Eastvalley ES campus!
All you have to do is click the link above, and respond to nine questions about this site, and the news and information we provide. The survey takes just a few minutes, and once you’re finished, hit the “submit” button.
What’s happening in East Cobb is why you come here, and we want to better serve your interests and understand what you value about this community resource.
Unlike corporate-owned media, East Cobb News answers above all to our readers, with the objective of meeting the news and information needs in our community. Your answers will help us tailor our product to make it really appeal to what’s important to you.
Don’t be bashful—tell us what we’re doing well, what we could do better or different or even not at all. We appreciate your readership and look forward to delivering more community news and information that’s relevant to you as we continue in 2024 and into the new year.
I’m always accessible to field your questions, hear complaints and try to explain why we do what we do at East Cobb News. E-mail me: wendy@eastcobbnews.com.
We’ll be collecting responses through September, so please feel free to complete the survey as you can. We’ll share the responses we head into the last quarter of the year.
Thanks so much for your readership of East Cobb News!
Tapping into a sense of community, from a veterans’ salute concert to a neighborhood cafe, is an East Cobb News hallmark.
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Monday marks a very special day at East Cobb News.
Yes, it’s just another Monday in the hot summer, and we’ll be at our Monday routine as well to start off another week.
But on July 8, 2017, coming a few days after our national holiday, is the day that I formally declared my independence as a journalist and pushed the “publish” button for East Cobb News for the first time.
If I had known then what I know now, would I have done it? I wonder about that on occasion, and I have been asked that question too, as it has been a daunting experience from time to time.
Getting anything off the ground is a real grind, and just as we thought we were flexing our wings, the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, which changed so much about our lives, and the work we do here.
But as I set to turn the calendar to Year Eight of this local business of mine—how time flies!—I can say unequivocally that the answer is Yes! Yes! Yes!
We were proud to be a sponsor again at The Taste of East Cobb!
I can’t emphasize that enough! After seven years, I feel as bullish about this enterprise as I ever have.
As I have written previously in anniversary columns, this has been the most difficult work of my 40-year-plus career, transitioning from old-school newspaper reporter to new-fangled local online news publisher.
It’s been quite a leap. Of faith, and into the deep end, and many other things.
But it has also been the most gratifying work I’ve ever done. Connecting directly with readers and advertisers has required skills, patience, resilience and resourcefulness I never thought I could possess.
Building a news enterprise with so much decline in my profession and industry is something I’m very proud to have done.
But there’s still so much more building to be done.
As I mark the 7th anniversary of East Cobb News, I want to start off this new year with a new concept that brings together everything I had in mind from the start—blending the provision of local news and information with local business promotion and community-building.
As I like to tell anyone who asks why I do this, these things all go hand-in-hand.
New business openings—especially tasty ones—are a staple of our coverage of local commerce.
This new campaign, “The Power of Local,” will build on those three components. Whether it’s a story, an advertising campaign or a way for citizens to get involved in a worthwhile project, East Cobb News will be stressing all of those community connections.
It’s about demonstrating the power of a single place, the place we call home, East Cobb, and how it can help others, and redefine the community.
There are some details to be worked out as “The Power of Local” launches, and I will be sharing them here as they are finalized.
More than anything, it’s a way to message how vital all these components are to our community, and how they benefit from one another, and how we all benefit from them.
As we started out last year, we are continuing to ask for reader donations.
When people pitch in to help in the community, we love to share it with others. So keep sending us your group’s news!
You can help support us by clicking here, and donating whatever amount you wish.
We’re suggesting $6 a month on a recurring basis, but that’s up to you. You can learn more by clicking here.
We’re grateful to those who have contributed, and those donations are being used to help us cover the local news that you love, and that you have come to expect from East Cobb News.
This is a voluntary thing do do; we do not have a paywall and readers do not have to pay anything to read what they see here.
But if you value East Cobb News in any way, please consider making a donation.
If you are a local business and would like to learn more about how you can promote your business with East Cobb News, you can get an overview of our advertising options by clicking here.
We’re the only all-online daily news presence in East Cobb, and offer the best opportunities for continued, measured exposure that our competitors simply cannot match.
Our advertisers appreciate our flexibility, our affordability and our willingness to do what it takes to get their message in front of East Cobb’s most engaged audience.
We’d love to talk with you about reaching that audience too!
And for our readers—now having grown to roughly 80,000 unique monthly visitors and more than 9,000 newsletter subscribers—thank you so much!
At the heart of what we do is a full-fledged commitment to providing local news that nobody else is doing in East Cobb!
Thanks for your readership, your feedback, your suggestions, your news tips and items. You have made East Cobb News so much better with your contributions, and we look forward to engaging with you for another year.
To sign up for the newsletter, click here. To send your news, photos, calendar listings, recognitions, etc., click here.
It’s part of our core mission to champion local news and business, and to be a source of powerful community-building.
Thanks to so many of you, we have been able to accomplish some of that. With “The Power of Local,” we’ll be able to take it to another level!
Stay tuned for more details and enjoy the rest of your summer!
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We’re going to kick back on Independence Day with the rest of you while enjoying this most American of holidays and will get back to posting on Friday.
I just wanted to offer up a short note of thanks to all of you for your continued readership of East Cobb News.
We’re soon approaching our 7th anniversary—so hard to believe!—and we’ll be noting that in more detail in the coming days.
As I noted this time a year ago, the end of Year Six felt incredibly special. We continue to grow our audience and advertising interest from local businesses is also on the rise.
We’re generating more traffic than ever, as citizens, business owners, civic groups and others invested in the betterment of East Cobb turn to us for the latest news and information.
Providing my home community with local news that you depend on, and that is relevant to your lives, has been the honor of my long career in journalism.
Helping my fellow small business owners promote themselves to you also is deeply satisfying.
But I don’t think of myself as just a reporter, or editor, or publisher, or small business owner.
I am all of those things, indeed, but also I’m an East Cobber who appreciates the vitality and quality of life that I enjoy here, and that is made better by the many community connections that are forged here.
I’ve never taken a day of this now-seven-year journey for granted, and I don’t intend to. What I’ve learned along the way is that everything matters, and that becomes increasingly the case as time marches on.
Declaring my independence as a media operator wasn’t just for my sake; it was for a vision to serve my community, this place I call home, during a time in which local news is being threatened everywhere.
It’s getting harder to do this, but I’m as strongly committed as I was at this time in 2017, when I finally pushed the “publish” button for the first time and launched East Cobb News.
I guess that’s one of the reasons why July 4 is my favorite holiday.
I love the history and traditions of our nation’s founding, rooted in a spirit of independence, and that is bolstered by Constitutional provisions such as the First Amendment, so important to my profession and to an enlightened citizenry.
I’ll be back soon with more details on our reader support initiative to mark our 7th anniversary: It’s Called “The Power of Local.”
Happy Independence Day East Cobb! May you have a joyous and peaceful holiday!
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February is the shortest month, but the sweetest one.
A cliché perhaps, but with Valentine’s Day right in the middle, we’re asking readers once again for their support of East Cobb News.
This is our first request of 2024, and we’re very appreciative of those who have contributed when we began this effort last year and who continue to do so.
While access to all content on East Cobb News remains and will always be free of charge—including our Sunday newsletter—we’d like to ask readers who value what they get from our community’s only daily, all-online news source to consider making a contribution.
Every day we go deep into East Cobb, bringing you professionally-reported news and useful community information: local government and schools, crime and fire, courts, business and restaurant openings, quality of life issues and more.
We’re coming off our best traffic year ever in 2023, thanks to so many of you for your readership, with more than 1.7 million clicks.
Our audience keeps growing, as we average nearly 150,000 page views a month and more than 70,000 unique visitors a month.
That’s an important metric, as that latter figure is roughly one-third of our coverage area. We’ve also enjoyed growth with our newsletter as we approach nearly 9,000 subscribers, and are pushing near 20,000 in our overall social media reach.
Increasingly, local advertisers are seeing the value in having a dynamic digital presence to reach a growing, engaged audience. They tell us they love how hyperlocal we go with the news, and that translates into a hyperlocal focus for promoting their businesses.
As carry on with a new year, East Cobb News is adding features we think the community will enjoy. The East Cobb Biz Scene column, publishing on Monday, rounds up openings, closing and other news about local businesses with a focus on the people behind them and what makes them tick.
We’ve also launched a weekly short video feature called East Cobb On the Spot, where we visit with people involved in a variety of community activities. Look for that to be published on Friday-Saturday every week.
This year is an election year, and we will be providing coverage of local races and the Georgia presidential primaries in March.
We have some other plans in the works to give you even more of the local news you love, so stay tuned!
In the meantime, please consider making a contribution to support the work of East Cobb News—we recommend a recurring monthly donation of at least $6 a month, or $60 a year.
We’ve set up our subscription options along the lines of public radio fundraising drives, to accommodate whatever level you wish to support. You can donate on a recurring basis, or submit a one-time donation via the link below.
Our payment platform is hosted by Press Patron, which makes it easy to support independent local journalism. Several dozen publishers like East Cobb News are powered by this platform, and we’re proud to be a part of their community.
The Press Patron platform is safe and secure, and is connected with the prominent Stripe online payment system. When you sign up to contribute, you can control your account and payment preferences.
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
