WELCOME TO THE EDGE!
Reporting from THE EDGE of Appalachia in Berea, Kentucky
Hello!
Welcome to The Edge, Berea’s source for quality local reporting, delivered straight to your email inbox. My name’s Whitney McKnight, a career writer, journalist and editor, and I’m glad you are here.
The Edge keeps you up to date on what’s happening in Berea, Southern Madison County—including the borders with Jackson, Rockcastle, Estill, and Garrard counties. The Edge’s primary interests are important developments in land use, politics, business, and culture.
Most likely, you’re already inundated with emails, so The Edge purposely focuses on offering quality rather than quantity. I don’t cover schools, sports, or the police beat. I also don’t offer obituaries, weather forecasts or have a calendar of events. There are things I will add in the future, but the above items aren’t on that list. As for op-eds, I am open to them, but I don’t have a policy per se at this time.
What’s the mission?
My reason for founding The Edge is to meet the need for local journalism in Berea and its vicinity. I believe I have the skills and experience to fill that void, and in time I plan to grow my capacity for coverage by hiring other writers and editors.
My mission with The Edge is to become Berea’s most reliable, informative local news source. To do this, I need your help. At present, I am supported by the Mountain Association and the Tiny News Collective (TNC), and am actively seeking other supporters. Currently, pre-completion of a 501c3 designation, I am going through the process of obtaining fiscal sponsorship from TNC. The Edge does not accept paid advertising, but does accept your generous and sustaining gifts, as well as paid memberships, as these are essential to help cover the hours it takes to deliver quality reporting.
The Edge is a bit like public radio (where I began my career): the programming is free to all and is supported by members. However! While the information might be available to all, only The Edge’s members can comment on stories in the public discussion section. Soon, The Edge will be offering members-only events, as well. To my mind, it’s not membership so much as community—one built together in a variety of ways, but primarily through financial support.
What is the ethos of The Edge?
I believe in the power of useful, independent reporting and good writing that is freely available, not hidden behind a paywall. My specialty is long form journalism, narrative in tone and style. My focus is on giving you the context you need to understand what’s really going on in our micro-region and how that might affect you.
My take on journalism is that it is a customer service for citizens engaged in civic life. I suspect that means you. I have always sought to ask the questions that my audience would ask if they also had access to the sources and background information that journalists have. If there is something you want to know, I will soon post how you can reach me with your ideas and concerns.
Why do you need The Edge?
If you think it’s vital that Berea has a publication which shines a light on the fast-moving changes happening here as climate change and other states’ tax policies prompt a rapidly increasing migration to our region, then you need The Edge. If you’ve ever pondered how the land we live on and our relationship to it engenders the culture and traditions we hold dear, then you need The Edge. If you’ve ever wondered to yourself, “How did that happen and why didn’t I know about it?”, The Edge is what you’ve been looking for.
Here are some stories The Edge is currently following:
The Eastern Kentucky Power Cooperative plans to clear cut nearly nine miles through the Pinnacles viewshed near Owsley Fork Reservoir to erect a powerline the power co-op says will keep the lights on for area residents. Opposition to the plan is growing from Berea College and others who say more evidence is needed that the power line as planned won’t cause harm, or is even necessary. What’s the whole story?
Berea’s housing inventory is tightening. What is driving this trend, and what might ease it? Plus, as housing prices go up, how might your property and other taxes be affected, as well as how will the demographics of our community change?
Now well into the second year of Berea being a “wet” town, what has been the impact of alcohol for purchase locally on tourism, taxes, and traffic stops, among other things?
Why is reporting on land use essential?
My most pertinent experience for founding a local newspaper is what I saw as a journalist in a small town in the Pinelands National Reserve portion of Burlington County, New Jersey. There I covered land use in a rapidly developing rural area for a weekly paper in the nation’s most densely populated state.
That is also where I saw first hand that whoever owns the land has the power. The experience of covering planning and zoning meetings that often went well into the wee hours of the night as constituents engaged passionately in the public process of determining the best land use policies for all constituencies taught me that any changes to the land, water, and overall environment of a place—no matter who “owns” it—are everyone’s concern.
Subsequently, for the highest good to occur, people need robust and accurate information to participate in effective and meaningful stewardship of their community.
Who are you, Lady?
I was born in Lexington while my dad was attending UK. My family originates from Estill, Woodford, and Butler counties, but I did not grow up here. I have lived in other areas of Appalachia such as Western New York State, East Tennessee, and Pennsylvania—the latter states being where sudden in-flows of people and industry brought rapid development not always planned well or with adequate—if any—public discourse.
Over my 30+ years in media and communications both at the local and national level, I have won awards for my trend spotting, solutions-oriented journalism, and have proven I have a nose for news. I have experience with breaking coverage of federal policy, and other topics globally, as well as with coverage of healthcare and economic policy on Capitol Hill and at the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission, working for titles at Medscape/WebMd and the Financial Times’ Mergermarket.
Additionally, my work has been featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Christian Science Monitor, NPR’s Marketplace, and many other local, regional, and national outlets, including my own award-winning newsletter, docu-mental: mapping the american states of mind. I have also been the editor of two metro Philadelphia life-style publications and was the local columnist for a Gannett paper in New Jersey, so I know how much people rely on their local media for stories and highlights of who they are as a community.
When will the first issue be published?
November 2024. Check back for more updates.
Thanks for reading The Edge!
Whitney McKnight,
Founder, Publisher, Chief Reporter, Marketer, Fundraiser, and Citizen of Berea
