Exclusive: New nonprofit news site launching in Richmond this fall

The big picture: Founding editor Michael Phillips never wanted to start a news site, he tells Axios, but when he looked around the local media landscape, he realized Richmond was in desperate need of one.

• The decline in coverage and resources at his former employer are driving a lot of that need, Phillips said.
• The once indispensable RTD won a Pulitzer in 2021 and a year later had lost more than a third of its staff, per Style Weekly.
• Phillips was let go last year after nearly 17 years largely covering sports, but he'd been a senior editor for three years overseeing multiple teams when he was cut.

Zoom in: But sports isn't the hole in coverage Phillips is looking to fill. It's the routine government meetings — once a core part of any daily newspaper coverage — that he cares about most.

• While the RTD no longer sends reporters to regularly cover City Council and school board meetings, The Richmonder always will.
• Phillips says local government reporting is especially critical because of the upcoming mayoral, council and school board elections.

What they're saying: "We're going to elect the people that will set policy for the next four years and people aren't getting the information they need," he says. "The Richmonder is going to exist because it needs to exist. We can't afford for it not to."

The Richmonder will launch Sept. 9, the week after Labor Day, with a core three-person reporting team, a reporter each covering the mayor, school board and City Council.

• The site has an initial fundraising goal of $500,000 for the first year and had a "very positive early reception" thus far, Phillips said. He declined to share specifics, but said they'll share them Sept. 9.
• The outlet will rely on corporate and private donations, plus optional reader membership starting at $9.99 monthly, for its funding.
• They're in the process of getting their 501c3 status to make donations tax deductible.

If it sounds similar to Cardinal News, the three-year-old nonprofit news site covering Southwest and Southside Virginia, that's on purpose: They were very much the model for The Richmonder, and Phillips met with their founding editor multiple times.

• And Cardinal News was founded in response to staff cuts at The Roanoke Times, a sister paper to RTD and under the same corporate owners.

Right now, The Richmonder is focused on fundraising, and Phillips nabbed a powerful ally to help on that front: David Poole.

• Poole spent 14-years as a reporter before founding the indispensable, nonpartisan watchdog group, Virginia Public Access Project, in 1997.
• He "semi-retired" last year to help nonprofit news outlets become sustainable, and that's what he'll be doing for The Richmonder, as business manager.
• "This is Michael Phillips' vision. I'm excited to play a role," he tells Axios. "Everyone we've talked with so far understands the need."

What's next: Phillips says The Richmonder will share the names of its reporters later this summer, and "people will be sufficiently impressed."

• Coverage will grow as donations grow; his goal is for The Richmonder to cover the surrounding counties with the same watchdog, dedicated journalism as they'll focus on the city this year.