Why I’m contributing to the Saratoga Dispatch

The Dispatch's new food and wine writer, Kathleen Willcox, on the state of daily news and why she's all in on Substack.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY — Where do you get your news? When I started out at a local newspaper in Westchester County called the Lewisboro Ledger, everyone in town got their local news there.

This was back way back in 2000. Flash forward, and the number of U.S. newspapers has declined precipitously. Since 2005, more than 3,200 newspapers have folded, and continue to, at a clip of about two a week. The State of the Local News Project estimates that by end of this year, the U.S. will have lost one third of its print newspapers over two decades.

The local newspaper, for generations, has been an integral part of the American cultural, social and political landscape. (Where else can you read about the champion high school basketball latest victory, gawk at photographs from the recent charity gala, and learn about the leading candidates for District Attorney?)

Increasingly, that’s Substack. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t discover a major author sharing deep and existential thoughts here, a favorite chef dishing up new recipes that I can’t wait to try, and dozens of established and would-be-journalists-if-the-news-business-were-still-viable dropping stories both local and global, trite and deep.

Which is a long way of saying, that when I’m not on the road covering wine, food, and culture for a range of publications, I’m going to pop in here to share news and views from my home base, Saratoga Springs. Local news matters. What’s going on down the street — in schools, restaurants, breweries, factories, car shops — matters.

See you here at the Saratoga Dispatch, at my own drinks- and luxury-focused Substack, Good + Tasty, and hopefully at schools, restaurants, breweries, factories and car shops.