On February 20, 2026, we quietly published the first article on the Spring-Ford Press.
There wasn’t an announcement. There wasn’t a big newsroom behind it. The basic idea was pretty simple: Could we build a sustainable local news outlet focused on the Spring-Ford area and the stories that often don’t get covered anywhere else?
Six months later, we’ve at least proven there’s an audience for it.
The Spring-Ford Press is approaching 2,500 Facebook followers, has hundreds of newsletter subscribers, and has generated nearly 130,000 page views. All of that growth has been organic. More readers are also beginning to find our reporting through search engines, meaning stories that might otherwise disappear after a few days on social media are continuing to reach people looking for information about their communities.
We’ve also been fortunate to have a small group of local businesses step up as sponsors, and I’m immensely grateful to every one of them.
But what has mattered most to me over these first six months are the moments when it becomes clear that people are actually using the information we’re providing.
At a recent municipal meeting, an official discussing a proposed ordinance noted that residents would be able to read about the discussion in the Press and come to a future meeting with their concerns.
People have stopped me in public or sent messages to tell me they appreciated something we covered. Some of the responses that have meant the most have come after more personal stories about people in our communities.
After we brought attention to one local matter ahead of a public meeting, a resident who cared deeply about it approached me afterward and said, “I wouldn’t have known this was happening if it wasn’t for you. Thank you.”
That’s essentially the argument for why the Spring-Ford Press exists.
We may not have a helicopter available when a train crashes into a vehicle in Royersford. But we do have the patience to sit through three hours of a township meeting to find out what development is being proposed down the street, how your tax dollars are being spent, what ordinance your borough is considering, or why a decision that could affect your neighborhood is being made.
There are plenty of stories happening in this area that aren’t dramatic enough to attract a television crew or large regional publication. They still matter tremendously to the people who live here.
The harder part of this experiment is figuring out how to pay for all of that reporting.
The Spring-Ford Press needs to generate more revenue if it's going to become sustainable. There’s no particularly elegant way to say that. We need more sponsors, and I need to become a better salesperson.
Producing the Press is also more labor-intensive than it probably appears from the outside. On any given week, I’m attending government meetings at night; generating, writing, reviewing and editing stories; publishing them as quickly as I can; maintaining our social media presence and newsletter; contacting prospective advertisers; conducting interviews; taking photos; and constantly looking for the next story worth telling.
We’re transparent about using AI as part of that process, and it saves me a huge amount of time. But it isn’t a magic solution. AI-generated drafts still need to be checked against source material, edited, and reviewed by a human before they’re published. The technology keeps getting better, but it still makes mistakes.
I could significantly increase the amount of content we publish by simply posting AI-generated articles with minimal review and a disclaimer that they might contain errors. I have no interest in doing that. If we’re asking readers to trust the Spring-Ford Press as a source of local information, then we have a responsibility to make a serious effort to get that information right.
We’re also working to build the Phoenixville Press, although I’m increasingly realizing that it won’t receive the attention it needs until I’m able to add more people to the operation.
There’s a lot I want to build, and trying to do it with limited resources is exciting, rewarding, and, at times, exhausting.
So over the next several months, I’ll be exploring some creative ways to generate additional revenue and make this operation more sustainable.
One of the easiest will always be sponsorship.
If you own or represent a local business and have considered advertising with us, I’d love to hear from you. We offer affordable advertising options on a local news website that people are demonstrably reading.
You may also have noticed something missing when you visit the Spring-Ford Press: an avalanche of automated ads.
That’s intentional.
We don’t want the site overwhelmed by an obnoxious advertising experience that makes the journalism difficult to read. Whenever possible, I’d rather keep our advertising local and personal — local businesses helping fund local journalism while getting their message in front of people who live nearby.
Readers who value what we’re doing can also voluntarily contribute.
What I don’t want to do is put the reporting behind a paywall. I believe residents should be able to access information about their local government and community regardless of whether they can afford another subscription. If the choice someday becomes putting essential local reporting behind a paywall or acknowledging that this particular business model didn’t work, I’d much rather exhaust every other option first.
So where does the experiment stand after six months?
The audience is there. The need appears to be there. The encouraging messages certainly suggest that the work matters.
Now we have to determine whether we can build a business capable of supporting it.
I’d love for the Spring-Ford Press to reach the point where we can bring on additional reporters and contributors, cover more communities, and tell substantially more stories than one person can realistically handle.
For now, we will keep going. Toward the end of this year, I’ll take a hard look at where things stand and whether the progress we’ve made is enough to keep building from.
I genuinely don’t know what the answer will be yet. That uncertainty has been part of the experiment from the beginning.
But six months in, I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has read an article, followed us, subscribed to the newsletter, shared a story, sent us a tip, sponsored our work, or simply told me that what we’re doing has been useful.
You’ve already helped prove that truly local news still matters.
The next challenge is figuring out how to make sure it sticks around.
