Episode description

Ellen and Dan talk with Nicci Kadilak, an educator, author, mom, and founder of the Burlington Buzz. The Buzz is a hyperlocal online news site serving Burlington, Massachusetts, a town of 26,000 people north and west of Boston. Kadilak created the Buzz in early 2022, when a town election was on the horizon and the local Gannett weekly, the Burlington Union, switched to regional coverage. In the 1980s, Burlington was covered by two weekly papers and The Daily Times Chronicle of Woburn, where Dan worked for quite a few years.  

Nicci uses the Substack platform, and charges a range of subscription fees. She offers news stories about town government, cultural events, sports, and has a section that provides a platform for audio interviews of newsmakers. She allows reader comments, too. Nicci also writes essays at Nicci's Notes, and her debut novel, "When We Were Mothers," is available wherever you buy books online. (Nicci and Ellen met in a Zoom discussion of local news led by Simon Owens for his informative Media Newsletter.)

Dan reports on another effort to leverage tax credits for local journalism, and Ellen has a Quick Take on the decline and apparent death of The Santa Barbara News-Press.