One month ago today, Next American City took its most dramatic step forward in quite some time. Eight months after putting out the final issue of its dead-tree magazine, NAC went fully digital on April 16 with the launch of Forefront, our weekly series of long-form urban affairs reporting (not to mention a spiffy, wholesale redesign of americancity.org).
The decision to go online-only understandably struck a chord with our readers: While many were totally on board with the idea, some decided to jump ship. Nonetheless, our experiment in making digital journalism as sustainable as we’d like to see our cities has proven not only hugely exciting, but also successful. We see new subscribers every day, and have no plans to stop delivering in-depth, high-quality stories nearly every Monday of the year.
So much like parents who document ever conceivable milestone in the lives of their precious little ones, we want to celebrate the one-month anniversary of our product with a roundup all the Forefront stories we’ve run so far. It’s an impressive list of topics: The future of redevelopment in California cities. One man’s vision to reinvent Downtown Las Vegas. President Obama’s urban legacy. Anti-immigrant politics in Connecticut. Economists planning charter cities in Honduras.
You won’t find reporting of this calibre, in this subject area, anywhere else. Remember, in order to read all but one of these stories, you must either subscribe or make an individual purchase. Yearly subscriptions will cost you a mere $1.49 — that’s less than a soda, bus ride or chocolate bar — per month. And look what you get:
- “Out of Cash: The End of the Nation’s Largest Redevelopment Program” by Josh Stephens
- “The Taco Mayor: Overcoming Anti-Immigrant Politics in Connecticut” by Sarah Kate Kramer
Next week, we’ll keep the ball rolling with “Mastering the Metro: How Metro Regions Can Win Friends and Influence Economies” by Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley. Thanks, and we hope you keep reading as NAC and Forefront grow.