At the start of June, CityView owner Tony Chavonne announced some news: The publication is transitioning to new ownership under The Assembly, a statewide outlet.

The Assembly is a three-year-old digital magazine that publishes long-form journalism on everything from politics to higher education to culture in our state. We’re also focused on supporting and growing reporting at the city-level, which led to this new relationship with CityView.

The Assembly’s approach is to find great journalists, give them space and time to dive deep into stories, and publish well-supported, nuanced, and compelling reporting.

Our guiding light for CityView is simple: Do more of what’s already working. And don’t be afraid to try new things.

Here are a few of our commitments and plans for the next six months:

  1. We’ll strengthen the monthly CityView magazine.

a. We’ll commission more local columns and articles from current and new writers to make sure the magazine is filled with stories about the people and things that make Fayetteville what it is.

b. We’ll explore ways to increase our distribution — both the free copies around town and those that are mailed to subscribers — by printing more magazines for readers to enjoy.

c. And thanks to the longtime advertising support from so many local businesses, we’ve set a goal of increasing our magazine page count over the coming months to deliver an even more robust and interesting monthly magazine.

  1. We’ll enlarge the Fayetteville-based news reporting team.

a. This month, we took our first step on this goal by adding a fantastic full-time reporter to the team covering health and healthcare. Morgan Casey started July 8, bringing CityView’s full-time editorial staff up to seven.

b. We’ll grow the pot of money used to pay freelance reporters so that we can commission more long-form investigative, feature, and enterprise work. CityView is already blessed with a great array of more than a dozen contributing writers and freelancers. We’ll commission more from this group and from other new writers as well.

c. We’ll keep doing daily news reporting and meeting coverage, but we’ll also look for ways to free up more reporter time for deep dives. We believe long-form reporting is what really impacts a city and tells readers something new.

  1. We’ll spend money to grow our reach and readership.

a. We’ll create a marketing budget for CityView to tell more people — and new arrivals to the city — about ways to get CityView’s free news products, including the magazine and the CityView Today newsletter.

b. For the advertisers who help underwrite our publication, that will mean more people seeing their message. For readers, it will mean more of their neighbors being informed and engaged in the city. We think that’s a win-win.

To do all this, we’ll add some resources from our statewide operation to CityView. We’ll also rely on local businesses and institutions to continue their historic support for CityView, and for new businesses to join them.

While The Assembly has a subscription-based model at the statewide level, CityView’s work, including its website and its newsletter, will remain free for anyone to access. But we’ll ask readers to consider joining CityView’s membership program by donating a few dollars a month to support our work.

We’ll also ask donors and supporters to keep supporting the 501(c)(3) News Fund, which Tony will continue to chair. The News Fund is governed by a fully independent board of Fayetteville leaders who know and love this city. Its support of CityView allows us to hire more reporters than otherwise possible to cover this city.

For the rest of 2024, CityView is expected to make just enough money to cover its projected expenses. We take that as a point of pride. We’re going to spend everything we’ve got on more journalism for Fayetteville and are so grateful for your help in making that number — and impact — as high as it can be.

Here’s how you can help in the months ahead:

• Send us story ideas, tips, and story feedback for the news operation. Email the editors, Bill Horner III and Maydha Devarajan, at bhorner@cityviewnc.com and mdevarajan@cityviewnc.com.

• Pitch us as a freelance reporter, either for the magazine or the news operation, by emailing talk@cityviewnc.com.

• Start a conversation about advertising packages and sponsorship. We’ll talk about how we can help you reach an audience and support our work. Email Talmadge Rogers at trogers@cityviewnc.com.

• Join our membership program, by giving a few dollars a month to support the news operation.

• Consider supporting in a larger way through a gift to the News Fund. Start a conversation by emailing info@cityviewnewsfund.org.

Thanks for reading, and for helping make this possible. We’re excited about growing CityView over the years to come. Reach me anytime at kyle@theassemblync.com.

With thanks,

Kyle Villemain, Publisher

Read CityView Magazine’s “Back to School” August 2024 e-edition here.

Kyle Villemain is founder and CEO of The Assembly. He is a former speechwriter who was fortunate enough to hire journalists smarter than him to envision a new model for state-level news. He grew up in the Triangle and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill.