Introducing OurTallahassee.com: A Welcome from Our Publisher Bob Lotane
BY BOB LOTANE
September 6, 2021
OurTallahassee launches project to bring a new progressive voice to Tallahassee’s media landscape.
As we transition from our soft launch, we wanted to take a second to introduce ourselves.
I’m Bob Lotane, the publisher of OurTallahassee. For some time now, we’ve been talking to friends and colleagues about the need for a new media outlet in Tallahassee, focusing the reporting on everyday people, on local government and the politics that affect us all. Against our better judgment, we decided to take the leap of faith and do it ourselves.
Over the past year, I’ve worked with New York Times bestselling author Jeff VanderMeer, and uber-effective public strategy consultant Max Herrle to build Our Tallahassee. Both are major contributors to the project and have had to endure me at my best and at my worst through what has been an inspiring, stressful, and illuminating experience to build Our Tallahassee.com. While the three of us don’t agree on every issue, what we have in common is a vision for a local government that is led by the people, not by special interests, and a hope that, together, we can inform our neighbors, and work toward a better, more transparent local government.
As we grow, we’re looking for all the help we can get with this exciting new project, and we encourage you to visit our new about page to learn more about opportunities to get more involved.
Going forward, we may look for donor funding, might even run a few ads, assuming they don’t run counter to our purpose. But, so far, we are primarily self-funded and/or doing all of this on our own time.
Our Tallahassee aims to provide today’s news and analysis on government, politics, justice, and events in Tallahassee and in the North Florida region.
Our city is covered by a number of outlets, including newspaper, radio, TV, and internet. But in these days of media conglomerations and skin-tight news budgets, we know there is room for another voice. Traditional media is under financial assault. To effectively cover government, citizen journalism will have to step up and help fill the gaps.
One undeniable change has taken place in the political zeitgeist of the city: No longer is it certain that the establishment candidate with the most money is almost guaranteed to win.
Elections are more competitive, and we think that’s a good thing.
We’ve already been called troublemakers, and even “a Northern Carpetbagger” by members of the Tallahassee old guard horrified that we are exercising our First Amendment rights. We assume they’re just getting warmed up.
So are we.
We hope you’ll join us.
– Bob
5 Responses
Well, this is a breath if fresh air! You can count on our support.
Terrific news! So needed in Tallahassee to lift the veil that hides so much favoritism for developers.
Welcome. I hope you can help reign in the carpet baggers destroying our beautiful town. Thank you.
Welcome! I’ll give you a try.
Welcome. Florida Women’s Hall of Fame journalist Barbara Frye was my aunt and I grew up around her and her journalist friends. Partly for that reason I’m a relatively sophisticated consumer of print news media. The Tallahassee Democrat frequently falls far short of the objectivity we have a right to expect from our self-described “newspaper of record for Florida politics.” I look forward to hearing from you.