FROM THE EDITOR: The State of the Advance at Age Two
On our birthday, the Advance is ready to take a giant leap forward. Here's how you'll benefit.
By Martin Davis
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Email Martin
Journalism is enjoying a Golden Age of innovation, and as the Advance approaches its second anniversary I stand in awe of how this community has supported this publication. Your dollars allow us to deliver local news in a way that few, if any, journalistic outfits are able to do.
Yes, we get the journalism basics right:
We tell it straight — The Advance brings an intense focus to the details of every story, and we couple that with a commitment to tell it straight.
We value education — News requires context. Our journalists bring formal education, and a commitment to ongoing learning, to their work.
We are independent — The Advance is committed to balanced and fair reporting above all. For this reason, we adhere to the ethics established by the Society of Professional Journalism.
We developed Meeting Previews — weekly rundowns of the topics and votes coming to local board and council meetings.
We are fearless and committed to telling the most important stories in our region — complex stories are our bread-and-butter. We dig deeper, and stay on top of, complex stories that cannot be covered in a single article.
The Advance is about so much more, however:
We give voice to the full range of viewpoints in our community.
Our Analysis section goes deep into data, while explaining what that data means for this community
Our political coverage gets beyond the talking points to what the leaders in our region are thinking and how they wrestle with the problems before them.
Our commitment to publishing thoughtful opinion pieces encourages deeper, more thoughtful discussions by helping readers explore the nuances driving today’s most challenging problems.
The result? Over two years, at a time when other news organizations are losing readers or page views, the Advance is growing both at a steady pace. From our founding to now, the Advance has never ended a week with fewer readers than at the start.
Our region is growing too, however, and the Advance is committed to keeping pace with that growth. That requires more reporters, and more resources to dig out the most challenging stories of our age.
We need our readers to help us get there.
Introducing Sustaining Members
Today, the Advance announces our new membership level — Sustaining Members.
Sustaining Members commit to contribute between $50 and $100 a month. These gifts not only will provide a significant boost to the Advance’s reporting capabilities, but they also provide access to unique thank you gifts that can only be earned by becoming a Sustaining Member.
What’s included? Here are the perks by giving level:
For Members Contributing at $50/Month
Signed Edition of Adele Uphaus’ First Book – History Thursdays: A Journey through Downtown Fredericksburg’s Homes and Past. This book collects Adele’s popular History Thursday columns into one collection, and it includes an Introduction by the editor-in-chief of the Advance.
Invitations to Monthly Breakfast-with-the-Editor meetings – Come and enjoy a light breakfast with coffee and tea and talk about the stories that defined the previous month, as well as the stories ahead. It’s also an opportunity to suggest things that you’d like to see the Advance cover. Editor-in-Chief Martin Davis will attend all meetings, with Advance reporters and freelancers joining throughout the year.
Access to a Special Monthly Column – Written by Martin Davis exclusively for our Sustaining Members, this column will go in-depth on data that defines our region and gives us insights into the future.
For Members Contributing at $75/month
Adele’s Signed Book
Invitations to Monthly Breakfast-with-the-Editor Meetings
Access to a Special Monthly Column
A Pen with a Custom-turned Barrel Bearing the Advance’s Logo – This keepsake item is made by a local artisan who created the pens specifically for supporters of the Advance. The barrels are custom-turned from wood native to the Fredericksburg area.
For Members Contributing at $100/month
Adele’s Signed Book
Invitations to Monthly Breakfast-with-the-Editor Meetings
Access to a Special Monthly Column
A Pen with a Custom-turned Barrel Bearing the Advance’s Logo
Invitation to a Special Spring Dinner at a Local Restaurant – Join Martin, Adele, and the Board of Directors for an evening meal with a special guest speaker.
Be Part of Journalism’s Revival
The Advance is a lean organization, with contributed funds going almost exclusively to pay for top-flight journalists.
We work remotely, so we have no buildings to maintain or related overhead that takes money away from doing high-quality journalism. We don’t excessively splurge on swag or related marketing materials — rather, we focus on deliveriIng quality journalism.
Because our overhead is so low, your Sustaining Membership has an outsized impact on our budget.
Becoming a Sustaining Member Is Easy
Simply visit our BE A SUSTAINING MEMBER link, and select your recurring monthly donation level.
Within 24 hours, you’ll receive a Thank You letter from the editor-in-chief. Shortly thereafter, you’ll receive an invitation to a book signing for Adele’s first book.
Your dollars have brought us this far. Now, help us take the next step and grow our coverage and our impact on the community.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit the link that follows.
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
The FXBG Advance cuts through the talking points to deliver both incisive and informative news about the issues, people, and organizations that daily affect your life. And we do it in a multi-partisan format that has no equal in this region. Over the past year, our reporting was:
First to break the story of Stafford Board of Supervisors dismissing a citizen library board member for “misconduct,” without informing the citizen or explaining what the person allegedly did wrong.
First to explain falling water levels in the Rappahannock Canal.
First to detail controversial traffic numbers submitted by Stafford staff on the Buc-ee’s project
Our media group also offers the most-extensive election coverage in the region and regular columnists like:
And our newsroom is led by the most-experienced and most-awarded journalists in the region — Adele Uphaus (Managing Editor and multiple VPA award-winner) and Martin Davis (Editor-in-Chief, 2022 Opinion Writer of the Year in Virginia and more than 25 years reporting from around the country and the world).
For just $8 a month, you can help support top-flight journalism that puts people over policies.
Your contributions 100% support our journalists.
Help us as we continue to grow!
This article is published under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. It can be distributed for noncommercial purposes and must include the following: “Published with permission by FXBG Advance.”
Wow, the part about giving voice to the full range of viewpoints really stood out to me. How do you manag to truly balance all those diverse perspectivs in today's world? It feels like such a challenge. Your dedication to deep data analysis and thorough reporting is clearly making a difference. Well done, Martin!