Charlotte media veterans buy Scoop Charlotte
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Former Axios editor Brianna Crane and Charlotte Agenda founder Ted Williams have purchased Scoop Charlotte, a luxury digital lifestyle publication founded in 2009, from longtime owner Susu Bear.
Why it matters: As legacy local media shrinks, two Charlotte media entrepreneurs are betting on a different playbook: a lean, digital-first luxury lifestyle brand with a loyal audience and room to grow.
Driving the news: Starting Friday, Feb. 6, Scoop will publish a redesigned newsletter three times a week.
- You can subscribe here.
Zoom in: Scoop reaches more than 10,000 newsletter subscribers and 83,000 Instagram followers, covering luxury real estate, style, beauty, travel, fitness, shopping and careers.
- For now, Crane, who left Axios Charlotte in 2025, will be Scoop's only full-time employee, taking over Bear's previous role.
- Crane and Williams declined to disclose the purchase price.
The big picture: Newsletters have grown increasingly popular as news sources, especially in fast-growing markets like Charlotte.
- Among them: The business newsletter The Charlotte Ledger, Williams' personal finance newsletter Tiny Money and the Charlotte Optimist, which former Axios Southern bureau chief Michael Graff started last year.
What they're saying: "Brianna is the perfect digital leader to take Scoop to the next level," Bear says. "It's been an amazing 16 years running the publication, and I'm thankful for the community we've built."
Between the lines: Williams will serve as an advisor and investor, not an operator.
- He has previously offered to buy other local outlets, including The Charlotte Observer.
- "I love supporting media entrepreneurship," says Williams, who also recently invested in a printing company by Charlotte magazine's former publisher, Andy Smith.
- "I'm thrilled to support her vision," Williams says of Crane.
Flashback: Williams hired Crane nearly eight years ago to work at Charlotte Agenda, which Axios purchased in 2020.
- At the Agenda, she helped shape the lifestyle and real estate beats.
- At Axios, she helped scale those beats to 30 cities and authored three newsletters a week. (She also trained many of the people on our team today).
What's next: Crane says Scoop is "totally focused on digital operations" for now. "But I love print," she adds. "So who knows what Scoop looks like a year, or many years, from now."