Amy Argetsinger

How did newspapers in places like Harrisburg, Birmingham, and Syracuse become some of America’s most-read online? They share an owner that sometimes gets forgotten — but which dominates much larger peers in web traffic. Here's our first monthly ranking of the top 25 local newspaper websites in the United States.

This is a pretty interesting deep dive into why newspapers owned by Advance Local punch far above their weight in terms of online traffic. The company kind of floats below the radar despite owning a lot of newspapers because it's privately held.

www.niemanlab.org/2025/07/how-...

I hoped I could stay out of this one but @solomonmissouri.bsky.social had to go draw me in.

Do one this summer and the other next summer?

Nice choice to have to consider. Which country?

Giant privilege question: At my late age I have a choice between driving cross-country and back or getting on a plane to the country I spent 7 years growing up in in the 1970s. I really have no clue what the move should be

Yes - but parallel you have kids who get into hero's journey, slaying-the-dragon, redemption-arc stuff & are never encouraged to read anything else. It persists to adulthood & you get functionally literate people with a cartoonish idea of humanity, which is just as bad.

"Lovely irony that Washington — a city full of swaggering mercenaries, political theater kids, walking LinkedIn profiles — becomes, for three months out of the year, an open-air sauna that is liable to transform them, under a full sun, into a pack of sweat werewolves."

Oh no, I'm about to do the thing where I feel helplessly compelled to post literally every other line of a Judkis take.

Must resist. But here's one more, okay?....

Sweaty Season has returned to the damp seat of government Washington summers are a rite of passage for every young striver who aspires not to be seen as a hot mess.

"When it’s very, very bad — like it is this week — you might see someone get up from their Metro seat and leave behind a dank, glistening imprint of their thighs."

-- @maurajudkis.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-int...

clearly!

True. It's still an industry that needs to pay its employees, so we're all in favor of readers clicking on the headlines that our reporting created -- ad impressions and all.

I’m with you on the unfortunate rise of clickbait. But I define it as headlines that manipulate you into a click that wasn’t worth your time. But jaded readers might have skipped over a quieter headline. Why not lean into the emotional aspects of an important story if it encourages them to tune in?

The point of a headline is to encourage people to read the story. Often, that lies in highlighting certain potent details over other, perhaps just-as-relevant details. A headline doesn’t have to reflect every aspect of a story. That is what the story is for.

“Calls were akin to listening to a podcast”
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

Every character on Abbott Elementary is the best character on Abbott Elementary.

DC! I'm a Washington Post features reporter and I'm writing about sweaty season. The humidity is about to spike. I want to hear your best, wildest, most mortifying stories about being sweaty in DC, and how 75% humidity affects your psyche. Reply/DM/email me: maura.judkis@washpost.com.

They creep up on you that way. Be careful out there!

5. Find My Phone Yes But What Room In The House No But Where Exactly In My Purse...

Our terrible singer-song writer culture is not your costume.

A lot of Benson Boone vibes at #eurovision. I guess it’s okay to do cultural appropriation again.

Our nation's doll owners have some thoughts.

By the inimitable @maurajudkis.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/style/of-int...

3. IMDb, but for local TV news reporters of the 90s and aughts whose names I don't remember but I really want to know where they ended up...

The Internet is getting pretty good but there are still a few things I need it to get to work on asap ... 🧵

My Mom Should Have Been the Most Excited Woman on the Planet This Week. God Had Other Ideas. Pope Leo would have hit very different for my devoutly Catholic, Chicago-loving mom.

I don't publicly talk about it much, but my mom's been sick with an Alzheimer's variant for a very long time. For years I've tried and failed to write about it. This week, I finally found the right peg. Thanks to @slate.com for running this on Mother's Day. slate.com/life/2025/05...