{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Charlotte Ledger Podcast","title":"A year of growth for The Charlotte Ledger","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":699,"description":"(^ 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...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/kqQN9IO6shxtWG_YWnCOpUSAIC9An10QtEtxE_q5rC0/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9mZDE1/ZDQxZmY1M2JlOTIw/NDdkYjkxMzA5MThk/NWIxMC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}