Exclusive: New nonprofit news site launching in Richmond this fall

A new nonprofit news site from a veteran Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter and editor will launch this fall: The Richmonder .

Why it matters: The outlet will focus exclusively on local government and accountability reporting to start, and its coverage will always be completely free to read.

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.