Why News & Views Is Back — And Why It Matters
Reviving local journalism with News & Views: uplifting the voices, stories, and struggles of Confluence and Turkeyfoot Valley. Join us!"
Larry Walsh never thought of News & Views as a newsletter. He thought of it as a conversation – the kind that happens when a neighbor who pays attention sits down to tell you what’s going on. For years, he did exactly that. He named names, showed up, and made sure the people of Confluence and the Turkeyfoot Valley knew they were seen.
Larry always believed News & Views could be more. He talked about it evolving – reaching further, doing more, keeping up with the times while staying rooted in the place it came from. This relaunch is an attempt to honor that vision.
But there’s something else driving it, too.
We live in a moment when local news has largely disappeared, bought up or shut down by conglomerates more interested in clicks than communities. The information that fills the void too often serves the powerful, not the people. Small towns like Confluence don’t make the national feed. Their stories don’t trend. Their struggles and celebrations go unrecorded unless someone local decides to pay attention.
That’s what this is. News & Views is independent – no corporate ownership, no outside agenda, no advertiser telling us what to cover or how to cover it. Just a commitment to the people and places of this valley. The ones who show up early to haul the trailer. The ones who buy the bunting. The ones who keep the lights on and the doors open and the community alive.
We intend to be the voice of the people who aren’t always heard. The small businesses hanging on. The volunteers no one thanks. The history that’s in danger of being forgotten. The issues that matter here, even when they don’t matter anywhere else.
Larry built something worth continuing. We’re going to do our best to continue it.
— Jeffrey “Pope” Pankey, Publisher