January 27, 2026

Hello,

This is Whitney McKnight, publisher of The Edge. I've been in news and publishing most of my career. After leaving Washington, DC, where I had covered health policy and economics for a decade, I returned to my native Kentucky, thinking it was time to do something new.

Except I couldn't find any news about something important to me and to the community. Namely, why was our local rural power co-operative about to build nearly nine miles of transmission line, known as the Big Hill Line, through the view shed of the Pinnacles with no public input?

So, I did what I know how to do, and started reporting on it. To offer full coverage, however, I'd have to start my own news outlet. So, I started a news outlet. That's The Edge origin story: I saw a gap in reliable, independent news not just about one land use issue, but about all important local issues, and I aimed to fill it.

And you, The Edge community of readers, have helped make The Edge a huge success. You have shown me how to listen, how to serve, and how to focus on delivering news about what matters to you most.

The Edge was born on October 24, 2024. Last year (2025), we served tens of thousands of readers who not only read my coverage of the Big Hill Line as I exclusively followed it all the way to the courts, with my stories running statewide in the Kentucky Lantern, but also The Edge's regular coverage of Berea City Council and Madison County Fiscal Court. There's also our "Meet Your Municipality" column, which helps educate readers on how and why local government functions as it does.

The Edge was the only news outlet to offer in-depth coverage of the budget shortfall scandal at Berea Community School, and was the first to comprehensively report on the aftermath of an apartment complex so poorly neglected and out of code, that its residents were evicted through no fault of their own, indicative of the lack of decent affordable housing in town. The Edge has been on top of many other stories, as well as editorials from the community, podcasts, and features.

This year, coverage of Berea and Madison County will be even more in-depth as The Edge partners with the investigative team at Muckrock for more accountability reporting on local government.

The Edge initially posted once weekly, but now with columnists and regular municipal coverage, we publish at least three times a week, and often five or more. We also have been accepted in the Kentucky Press Association and several other independent publisher groups including LION and the Tiny News Collective.

We are online only for the time being, and are free to all who wish to read fair coverage of their community. But, of course we not only welcome, we encourage, your material support with a tax-deductible donation or a paid subscription:

Our mission is to turn readers into empowered citizens.

Thank you for your time and interest, and for making us your source for real news and information from The Edge of Appalachia in Berea, Kentucky.

Whitney