A year of growth for The Charlotte Ledger

(^ You can listen to Ledger editor Tony Mecia read this letter to readers by clicking above)

Dear Ledger reader:

It’s the end of 2021, the time of the year when organizations look back and look ahead.

At The Ledger, we’ll try to spare you the overly sappy reflections, but we do think it’s healthy to share with our readers what we’ve done and where we’re heading. We can exist only because of our readers’ support, so we think you deserve periodic updates on how our business is doing.

The short version: In 2021, we continued growing, with more paying members climbing aboard, more people hearing about us and more efforts on our part to experiment with new things that readers might like. We plan to keep that up in 2022.

The longer version: Man, we did a lot. We sent 292 email newsletters, broke a ton of news, highlighted trends and introduced you to fascinating people in our city. We are pretty sure we made you smarter and better-informed.

Some of the work we are most proud of includes:

Investigations: We shared some ambitious investigative pieces, including in-depth looks at the sexual assault allegations at Myers Park High, an unexpected $10,000 colonoscopy bill from Atrium Health, the decline of the Arts & Science Council and the trend toward replacing pediatricians with nurses in hospital nurseries.

New newsletters: We started 2 new newsletters this year — Ways of Life (obituaries); and Transit Time, in conjunction with WFAE and UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute. Not to brag (too much), but Transit Time was named “Best Local Newsletter” by Queen City Nerve and won a national award from our trade group, Local Independent Online News (LION), for “Collaboration of the Year.”

Trends: Because we are connected to Charlotte, we clued you in to interesting and important trends before they became widely apparent. Supply chain disruptions? We looked into the causes months before politicians made it a talking point. Book shortages? We told you about them two weeks before the New York Times. Wild bidding wars for houses? We shared Realtors’ eye-opening stories a week before The Wall Street Journal had the same idea. And when teens started stocking up on feta cheese in February because of a TikTok video, guess which local newsletter was ON IT — two weeks before The New York Times took note.

The Ledger displayed plenty of range in 2021. Clockwise, from upper left: Midnight hockey in Pineville; J.T. Williams, one of N.C.’s first Black surgeons, who became a politician and diplomat; feta cheese supplies running low in February; the prototype of a drive-thru-only Bojangles in Cotswold; analysis of enrollment declines at south Charlotte public schools; a financial salesman who pursued his dream of opening an east Charlotte reptile shop; the bread-only “Sandwiche” from the fictional Breadland restaurant in our April Fools’ edition; pickleball action heats up among newly vaccinated Sun City residents.

Interesting people: We introduced you to Charlotte people with stories to tell and lessons to share, including an Atrium Covid ICU nurse who experienced the pandemic through different eyes when her grandmother became ill with the virus; newly vaccinated seniors in Sun City who were happy to resume playing pickleball and attending Saturday night ’60s dance parties again; a Broadway fan who received a get-well video message from Lin-Manuel Miranda; investors who put money into tech company AvidXchange and waited 20 years to reap big windfalls; and relocated Northerners who play hockey at midnight in Pineville.

Interviews: We gave you Q&As with well-known and fascinating Charlotte people, including former Bank of America CEO Hugh McColl Jr.; former mayors Sue Myrick and Harvey Gantt; the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s new executive director, Todd Smith; Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s new CEO, Marcellus “MT” Turner; and basketball broadcast analyst Jay Bilas.

Growth and development: The story of Charlotte is the story of growth, and we have continued to offer unparalleled and authoritative local coverage of this important topic — from insights on the 2040 Comprehensive Plan; to development trends in Sugar Creek, NoDa, west Charlotte, Ballantyne,