From time to time in The Capitolist, I take members of Florida’s media – usually the state’s legacy newspapers – to task for their sometimes stunningly inappropriate editorial decisions. This rarely endears me to members of the media who feel picked on, but that’s a burden I’m willing to bear in exchange for holding our state’s immensely powerful media accountable.

It is important, and also fair game, to point out the failings of our state’s mainstream media because they so often claim the right to do the same to others, yet rarely concede any mistakes in their editorial decision-making.

But that is not The Capitolist’s main purpose.

As we approach the start of our sixth year, I thought it would be good to reintroduce readers to The Capitolist and our mission, and invite you to be a part of that mission.
Over the past year, we strategically evolved from a website and blog primarily concerned with Florida politics, to take on a broader role and to fulfill an important need in our media landscape.

Today, in addition to our original focus on Florida political matters, The Capitolist operates as an independent, pro-business, pro-Florida publication focused on news and editorial coverage of a wide range of industries that operate at the nexus of Florida business, public policy and politics.

These industries include healthcare, agriculture, telecommunications, energy, tourism, gaming, financial services, insurance, real estate and others.  In 2021, we posted more than 1,000 news stories on these topics, the vast majority of them based on the original reporting of The Capitolist’s staff.

Our news team is now three strong, and we’re looking to expand again in near future. This weekend, we even completed our relocation to new downtown Tallahassee offices that will help accommodate our growth and accomplish our mission.

Our news stories speak for themselves. You can read them and judge them as you please. We are proud of these stories and we believe them to be fair and objective.

Underpinning our editorial philosophy is our belief that it is virtually impossible for Florida’s businesses to get a fair shake from the legacy media in our state.  Time and time again, we’ve witnessed egregious editorial treatment of the state’s businesses by mainstream media who not only report through the lens of anti-business editorial agenda, but who also actively suppress the ability of businesses to simply tell their side of the story.

We’re here to help Florida’s businesses get a fair shot at telling their stories because they are not going to get it from the legacy media.

And for that, we make no apology.

To the contrary, we are proud to have had 15 advertisers and sponsors supporting our mission in 2021 and we hope to significantly increase that number in 2022.

Last year, we increased subscribership to our morning ReCap newsletter by 500 percent to nearly 27,000 highly engaged influencers who represent Florida’s movers and shakers. This list continues to grow every day.

In total, more than 400,000 people visited our site last year. As a result of their engagement with our content, our pageviews set a new record. We received well over 1.5 million pageviews, up nearly 13 percent over the record set a year earlier. We are proud of these numbers not for the sake of the numbers themselves, but because they represent a highly influential and engaged readership.

In 2022, we invite you to support our mission by becoming a regular reader and advertiser.

Call or write me with your story ideas or to discuss advertising at (850) 273-2770 or brianburgess@thecapitolist.com.

Here’s to a happy, healthy and productive 2022.

Sincerely,

Brian Burgess