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“READ IT ALL” is the unabashed subject line of the Virginia Mercury’s daily email newsletters, hitting inboxes since the online-only news platform launched in July and featuring headlines such as “ ‘Bigfoots like sex, too:’ What congressional candidate Denver Riggleman wrote about sasquatch” and “Can Richmond get the middle class back on the bus?”
The Mercury is an independent, Richmond-based news organization dedicated to state government and policy coverage, with its four-person staff homing in on the environment and energy, criminal justice, health, transportation, and education.
“We’re funded by the Hopewell Fund, a 501(c)(3) out of D.C.,” says Executive Editor Robert Zullo, a veteran journalist who recently covered energy, environment and transportation at the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Eventually we’ll have our own 501(c)(3).” Soon, the Virginia Mercury will begin accepting donations on its website and seek other funding sources.
Zullo is joined by two former colleagues from the Times-Dispatch, Ned Oliver and Katie O’Connor, and a former Virginian-Pilot reporter, Virginia Commonwealth University graduate Mechelle Hankerson. Getting a news organization up and running is exciting, Hankerson says. “We get to determine who we are, what we cover and how we cover it.”
