Winter's Here. I'm Hibernating.

This is a brief announcement to let you know I'm temporarily pausing paid subscriptions to recharge and explore new approaches to reporting and writing.

It’s time for a break. You could call it a hiatus, a sabbatical or, given the weather, a hibernation.

That may be the best comparison because, like bears during North Carolina winters, I’ll be up and around occasionally.

I’m just pausing paid subscriptions to give myself time to develop stories that inspire me and to, maybe, explore other writing projects.

I will continue to publish, but in the short term won’t do so regularly enough to justify taking money from the small but highly appreciated percentage of readers who voluntarily send payments.

And because I’m considering a fresh approach, these interim posts may not neatly fit the model — strict local focus and scrupulous lack of bias — that I established when I started NewsBeat and that I continue to advertise.

By not charging for content, I can feel free to share my opinion — informed opinion, I should add, based on four years covering local government. In pursuit of a larger readership, I may also write about subjects with statewide and even national impact.

I’m not taking this step because I’ve run out of things to write about; there’s always stuff to write about if you keep digging.

But I have done the most obvious stories, the ones that most urgently needed to be written when I started NewsBeat in January of 2021: The school bond, the Ecusta Trail, the decline of Transylvania Regional Hospital, the pronounced shortage of affordable housing, countywide planning, childcare and mental health counseling.

The elections are over, construction of the Ecusta is underway, and leaders from the county and the schools have reached an agreement that should allow them to move forward with needed repairs.

And if some of my most ambitious stories are not exactly evergreens, as we in the news business used to call timeless pieces, much of their content is still relevant.

Anyone who wants to know about the forces underlying the local housing and healthcare crises, for example, could do a lot worse than accessing stories about them, for free, in the NewsBeat archives.

It seems like a good time, in other words, to step back and look for topics that are as rewarding for me to write about and for you to read about as these were. If any of you have any suggestions, please pass them on.

I will give you notice when I resume charging for my work and tell you if I plan to take a new approach. That way, if you previously agreed to pay you can decide if you want to continue to do so.

I’m not saying goodbye, in other words. More like, see you in the spring.

Email: brevardnewsbeat@gmail.com