Where things stand at The Capitolist

by Brian Burgess | Apr 3, 2022

To Our Readers & Advertisers:

Thank you for your continued support.

Because of you, The Capitolist continued to build on our incredible momentum during the first quarter of 2022.

During the first three months of the year, we published 283 stories along with seven guest opinion columns.

In doing so, we stayed true to our editorial mission: to provide original and aggregated reporting focused on the nexus of business, public policy and politics in Florida.

Under this cohesive umbrella, our topics ran the gamut of issues important to Floridians – stories about the state’s legislative process, politics, the economy, healthcare, the environment, real estate, media, energy, insurance, cybersecurity, telecommunications, aviation, agriculture, legal issues, COVID, tourism and more.

Those topics attracted a broad swath of readers from among the state’s most influential people. In fact, visitors to The Capitolist website numbered more than 170,000 during the first quarter of 2022, up 35 percent as compared to the same period last year.

Pageviews – that is, the number of pages they were reading – exceeded a half million during the first three months of the year, up nearly 30 percent compared to the first quarter of last year.

Subscribership to The ReCap, our free daily email summarizing Florida’s most important news, grew to 36,660 people, up 40 percent just since the beginning of this year. Those people include elected and appointed officials, business leaders and political donors from across the political spectrum. All of them, like you, want to get the news fast, and ReCap delivers! You can join them in subscribing to ReCap by signing up here.

We also enjoy the support of more than 39,000 followers on our Facebook page. These are loyal readers who like and share our content with their friends and family across the state.

Advertising and sponsorships continued to grow as well. Last year, we enjoyed support from 15 different advertising partners or sponsors. So far this year, we’ve added two more. We invite you to consider becoming an advertiser as well. More information about our ad placement options, audience metrics and rates can be found here.

While we published a broad array of informative, engaging content on The Capitolist, some stories really captured our readers’ attention. Here are just a few examples of some of the most-read stories of the first quarter of the year:

Florida avoids “judicial hellhole” label, but…

Two more Florida insurance companies pause new policy writing

No coronation for Trump in ‘24

Sea Lead, leading global shipping company, moves from California to Jacksonville

Florida to become first state to implement education progress monitoring

Miami Herald reporter caught coaching Democrat Senator on ways to boost redistricting lawsuit chances

Hot, hot, hot: These Florida cities will be USA’s top two real estate markets in 2022

So why are we at The Capitolist focused on the nexus of business, public policy and politics, and what makes us different?

Put simply, we think that Florida’s businesses and policymakers – the decision-makers entrusted with continuing to move our state’s economy forward for the betterment of all – ought to have the ability to have their stories heard fully and fairly.

Equally simply, we don’t believe that Florida’s legacy media gives them a chance to tell their stories. All too often, the legacy media let their anti-business bias show through in what they cover and how they cover it.

We’re committed to doing things differently – to giving people the chance to tell their stories and to giving you, our readers, the chance to hear the whole story and make up your own minds based on all the facts.

We’re also committed to calling out media bias when we see it, without fear and without favor.

We think that approach resonates with our readers and that, in turn, is responsible for the incredible momentum behind The Capitolist so far this year.

Moving forward, please let us know how we can help you tell your stories through our news reports and through our advertising opportunities. We also invite your op/ed submissions for consideration.

Thank you for your continued support. We are confident, based on our business strategy and performance to date, that we can continue to grow our audience and influence. If you’d like to talk further about partnering with us, don’t hesitate to reach out to me personally. My contact information is below.

Sincerely,