A Look Back at December here at Civic Capacity

Vol. III, No. 217 - Ending up the year on a positive note

Photo by Anna on Unsplash

Welcome to January!

Welcome to January and welcome to the new year. All across the county, local governments are gearing up for what the new year might bring. And this being an even numbered year, new elected officials are taking their seats. Against the backdrop of the nation’s 250th anniversary, 2026 could go down as a pretty remarkable year as statewide elections take place later this year. On the local level, voters will be asked to approve a funding mechanism for a new county jail and massive infrastrcuture improvements are planned for Downtown Troy.

For over a year and half, this publication has provided coverage on civic topics important to Miami County. The original goal of our publication was to come up with an original analysis or story every three days. But, as the stories and the audience grew, that there was an opening for something more — something daily. As of this point, over 800 editions of this newsletter have been sent out, each one hopefully giving our readers both near and far a unique and interesting perspective on life here in Western Ohio.

As much as I might be the one producing and creating this publication, this is certainly by no means a “one man show”. There are scores of folks that have invested time, money, suggestions, and perhaps most importantly, encouragement, into this endeavor. This continues to underscore the fact that Civic Capacity is a community-based project. If things weren’t happening in our community, if people weren’t interacting, there wouldn’t be much to write about. That is why your support as either a free or contributing subscriber to this project is critical!

And the community response to this publication has been nothing short of amazing. Recently, this publication did a survey of it’s readers and one metric of success that was looked at was our “Net Promoter Score”. Basically, this was a measure to see how many promoters this newsletter has against the number of detractors that are out there. In the marketing world, anything over +20 is considered solid, if you have a score over +50, that’s a sign of a loyal following. Our score here at Civic Capacity? +88. That’s a pretty high standard we are setting. The basic Net Promoter Score for newspaper and newsletters in general is +25.

And this is where I really need to thank you —- the readers of Civic Capacity. The readers of this work are some of the kindest, most generous, and most encouraging people I could ever ask to be a part of this project. The notes, the texts, the phone calls are all welcome, and it’s exciting to know that we are on this journey together to make our hometowns great places to call home! Thank you for reading and sharing our publication!

The Big Story

December’s big story came earlier in the month when this pubilcation explored what is happening in a small village in neighboring Darke County. The State Auditor recently authored a report recommending the dissolution of Ithaca and this publication discussed that report and what dissolution means.

Civic Capacity: Inside the Numbers

Throughout the month, our publication was growing. Our free subscriber list actually decreased, we currently stand at the point where 2,500 people are receiving this newsletter when a new edition drops. Those generous individuals who make a financial contribution to our effort grew remained steady — Thank You Supporters! In fact, our newsletter continues to be a “Best Seller” on the Substack platform!

Our publication also had 35,185 separate views throughout the month; each day nearly 1,100 views of our work occurred, which means more and more individuals are finding value in this project and that is heartwarming!

For the entire year of 2025, our publication was read over 471,000 times, nearly 1,300 readers per day. 2026 will be the year in which our publication will have been read 1 million times! Thank you readers!

If you have not become a paid subscriber to our effort, please consider it. With your paid subscription, you have access to all back issues of our newsletter and access to our paid-subscriber chat and the opportunity to comment on all our posts!

Perhaps, even more importantly, you are supporting a community based publication without annoying paywalls (like the Miami Valley Today) or annoying advertisements that disguise themselves as stories (like the Dayton Daily News). And I am not trying to knock those publications, they are running their own shops, and they are providing a service to the community. However, this publication believes that the news and analysis that are provided here should be as open and widely shared as possible.

Announcing our January Community Survey!

Every other month, this publication takes time to ask our readers how they feel about the happenings in their hometown! What are the challenges? What are the opportunities? Is your hometown headed in the right direction? Our survey is the easiest way for you to express your thoughts. Next month, this publication will report out on the results.

Thanks for your time and your participation! It is greatly appreciated!

A New Way to Support This Work

Our readers and subscribers have been asking for a new way to support the work being done here at Civic Capacity! Some of our readers do not like the idea of having to sign up for another subscription service. Some of our subscribers occasionally want to give more support through a one-time transaction.

Civic Capacity is partnering with “Buy Me A Coffee” to give our readers, subscribers and friends an opportunity to give one-time support to Civic Capacity. Personally, I don’t like coffee, but I will never turn down a nice iced tea. If you feel compelled to support this effort, just click the button below.

Thanks for reading today’s Civic Capacity Newsletter! Please feel free to share this information with your friends and neighbors.

Also, please consider subscribing to our work. If you are a free subscriber, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For less than $1 a week, you can get timely and conversational updates about the decisions that are impacting you and your community!