HBAC 169: Local News Roundtable

I did a little bit of a boss job down here, and I assigned some homework to the fellas.

They were to read a lot of your recent coverage across the spectrum and kind of get a feel for what's kind of driving your localities.

But I thought maybe in your own words, and we talked about what brought you to the Substack picture, but what in your area is driving your coverage? What is currently the hot button? Maybe let's start in Marysville.

What is moving eyeballs to your publication and what is driving the discussion?

So number one is just growth.

People want to know what's coming in.

They want to know, you know, how the community is growing.

So that could be transportation.

That could be retail development.

It could be housing development.

I have a story today about Target wanting to go into Jerome Township on 161 up here.

But the city of Dublin is kind of playing games in the background, trying to block it because they want to control the utilities from 161 at Route 33 all the way to Plain City because there's a lot of money to be made there.

Yeah, the major contracts for putting in that kind of poll, that's not nothing.

Right.

And so that kind of thing drives eyeballs.

The data center debate, right, that drives eyeballs.

The plane wreck of local government sometimes just drives eyeballs.

There's so much interest right now.

in Jerome Township, which is the southeast corner of Union County, there's so much interest in the township trustees trying to oust the fire chief.

And, you know, that's a big deal.

You've got someone who's a first responder who's done his job well for years and years, and now for political reasons, he's, you know, they're trying to throw him to the side of the road, but the manner in which they're doing it

Has really brought the three people in a small room of it all right to the forefront of it.

Again, it's how, like you said, the wreck of it sometimes.

Like, what is the worst possible way to go about removing a long time fire to change?

For a guy who's done public relations for the last 20 years, I'm like, you guys obviously haven't thought this through.