Monthly open thread: January 2023

Here's your chance to have your say!

Well, 2022 was an interesting year. Markets crashed, major crypto exchanges collapsed and the housing market is starting to show signs of buckling (interestingly, prices are crashing mostly on the west coast, not so much in the Midwest). Locally, we saw businesses and governments alike struggle to hire workers. We learned Eastbay will be no more, but what exactly that means is still a bit of a mystery.

In our most popular posts of 2022 story, one thing I probably should have included was the Big Trouble in Little Kronenwetter series. By numbers the posts had viewer visitors than the ones I included in the 2022 roundup, but the “most popular” tab on the Wausonian front page is filled with stories from the series.

I’m most proud of this series because I dug into something no one else was really looking into. And I took a new approach (with some apprehension) and it paid off. Giving updates on my research as I went through the records request worked well - it led to more tips, which led to new parts of the series.

It wasn’t perfect. The story really became a monster that could have been endless. And the records themselves became less and less important as the story progressed. The bottom line seems to be a board containing members that didn’t seem to be aware of the effects of their own actions.

Kronenwetter will see a three-way presidential race between incumbent president Chris Voll and board members Ken Charneski and Joel Straub. It’ll be an interesting race, and interesting to cover since I’m sure two of the three won’t respond to my requests for interviews (but maybe they will!).

Posts this month

Here are the stories The Wausonian published this month (not including Weekly Wausonians or open threads):

Perfectly Wausonian No. 2: Cheryl Wolken of Wausau Mama!

A breakdown of your increasing water bill

Getting better data on Wausau's homelessness problem

BREAKING: Eastbay closing for good

We won't be burned again

Updates

The Wausonian now has its own domain. It’s considered a good practice in the Substack community, and is fairly affordable. So www.thewausonian.com is now our official web address.

And, I started a new Twitter account for The Wausonian. I recommend following it.

Post volume

I dug into the stats a little over the holiday season. For those who unsubscribed, I wanted to see why. A number of them said it was because of post volume.

Of course, without much detail I don’t know if that meant in general, or if it meant specifically paid content. Those comments came in November and December, and I wrote more posts open to everyone.

I have been working on ways to grow the content here more without sacrificing quality. The Wausonian is not meant to be a quick hit forum. It’s meant to give you a general news summary once per week and then a longer read or two the rest of the week, something either data-focused or heavily reported. Both take a lot of time.

Have your say

So I will make that the theme for this month’s open thread: What do you think about the content volume on The Wausonian? Too much? Too little? I’m including a poll, but also tell me in the comments how much you think is ideal. For open threads, everyone can comment. Feel free to expand below.

Let me know! Have a great month and thanks to everyone who subscribes, free or paid.