My most read stories of 2023, and a bonus
I published my first Substack January 19th, 2023. Since then, 43 others have followed.
I didn’t know what it would look like when I started. I suppose I’ve always been a writer and it just made sense to write about what was on my mind.
It has been interesting to see what readers consume and what they don’t. The temptation to write sensational headlines is great, because the headlines with sizzle get clicked the most.
I’ll try to be judicious with those sizzle headlines.
Thank you for reading. Here are my five most read posts of 2023. Click on the link to read the whole piece:
Not everyone liked this one, but different opinions are always welcome.
So when I heard the song and read the lyrics, I found myself agreeing with a lot of what was said, but still far from raising my fist in solidarity.
We Christians can do a much better job of handling our tongue. This thought resonated with many of you.
But is there a pattern to our speech that identifies us as either someone working to comply with God’s command about our speech or as someone determined to go our own way?
I’m afraid we’re becoming the latter a lot more than the former.
This one sparked a lot of conversation. It also got picked up by some local officials and shared around the broader officiating community.
It isn’t the quality of officiating. The volume and the acidity connected to complaining about officiating says more about us than it does officiating.
This isn’t about the person who occasionally points out a missed call. This is about the serial officiating complainer.
This was actually part two of an explainer about how the Dothan Eagle went from a staff of 34 to less than 10 over time.
We didn’t know exactly how it was going to happen and we didn’t know when it was going to happen. But, once the first cuts starting taking place in the newspaper industry in the mid-2000s, we knew we were working in a dying print industry.
We also thought, however, that we could pivot.
This one got shared around quite a bit. In many ways, the Eagle story is just like a thousand other small- to mid-sized dailies. But it’s our community, and that’s why it resonated with so many of you.
We certainly receved a great deal of criticism over the years as staff was cut, pages were cut, the width of the paper was cut and the price of the paper increased.
But the rank and file people at the Dothan Eagle — the sports and news and lifestyle reporters, the photographers and the editors — came to work every day and put their head down and worked with the cards they were dealt to try to put out the best product they could.
And a bonus post …
Dothan and the FBI: The Documents
This one had the highest percentage of email opens. From the Atlanta Child Murders to the DC Sniper case, Dothan has been a part of several high-profile cases.
Thanks for reading. Looking forward to a great 2024! If you know of anyone who would enjoy these posts, feel free to share.
My three most recent posts:
I Gave Some Attention to Alex Jones so you don’t have to
What the College Football Playoff reaction says about society