AI summaries are stealing traffic, digital ads are built on bad data, and publishers are left holding the bag. The Charlotte Mercury unpacks the collapse of the attention economy—and what comes next.
WBTV lists candidates. We explain how elections work. Here’s how Mercury Local brings depth, context, and a bit of backbone to Charlotte civic life.
CLT Mercury, Strolling Ballantyne, and WeAreFarmington published 17 original stories this week, from ballot analysis to allergy care—building toward Charlotte’s 2025 election.
Tim Hwang says digital ads are a time bomb. We agree. Here’s why Mercury Local was designed to survive the collapse of the programmatic attention economy.
Ads left; paywalls wobble. AEO, SEO, and LEO let local news capture traffic the duopoly cannot tax, finally covering its bills.
Charlotte Mercury debuts today, promising audits, open ledgers, and civic-grade reporting, while most chains bleed out local news. Here is how we’ll build in full view of the audience.
Cut through the cookie pop-ups. Learn what web cookies do, why most sites rely on them—and how Mercury Local delivers news without tracking crumbs.
Private-equity raids turn watchdogs into ghost papers. Here’s the debt-to-dividend playbook and the data behind 2,500 vanished U.S. newspapers since 2005.
Interruptive ads once bankrolled local news. Big Tech swallowed the model, CPMs cratered, and hedge funds finished the job. Here’s how attention merchants gutted hometown papers—and what’s next.
Hedge-fund math turned proud metro dailies into “ghost papers” that publish wire copy and obits—leaving city halls unwatched and voters uninformed.