“…recognizing that an informed citizenry is the foundation of all democracies, David McNair has provided an invaluable service to the community of Charlottesville.” — Virginia General Assembly House Resolution No. 436.
Charlottesville DTM offers independent reporting, analysis, commentary, and curated news from long-time Charlottesville, Virginia journalist David McNair. You can also find Charlottesville DTM on Facebook and Bluesky for daily doses of the same. Thanks for your interest!
What others are saying…
"We need this kind of local reporting now more than ever." -- journalist Jen Howard, commenting on recent reporting on the ICE detentions and protests at the Albemarle County Courthouse.
“Good stuff from what seems to be the best news source in Charlottesville.” — Rick Tetzeli, editor-at-large, Fast Company Magazine.
“What the Charlottesville DTM brings to local news—besides McNair’s institutional knowledge—is a zestier writing style than more established media.” — C-Ville Weekly
“This is an excellent retrospective by David McNair on The Crossings, a decade into its existence.” — Dave Norris, former Mayor of Charlottesville
Subscriptions
Reading Charlottesville DTM is free but getting a paid subscription makes that possible. New posts can be read for two weeks before they are archived for paid subscribers.
Founding Member Subscribers
Special thanks to Bob Beard, a Founding Member subscriber since July 17, 2020.
Social media
On Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, and Bluesky.
Submissions
Charlottesville DTM welcomes story submissions, opinion pieces, artwork, and essays.
Contact
David McNair @ thedtmnewsletter@gmail.com. You can find out more about me here.
Charlottesville DTM history
While I was a staff reporter for The Hook, a feisty weekly that was shuttered in 2013, I noticed that people who wrote comments under stories on our website often used “DTM” as shorthand for the Downtown Mall. So, when I started a blog and Facebook page about the Downtown Mall it was a natural choice.
At the time, I thought of it as a "hyper-local" online news source, a term that was popular at the time, that would focus specifically on the culture and dynamics of the Downtown Mall, an 8-block section of Main Street that had been converted into a pedestrian mall in the 1970s. It turned into more than that.
Not long after The Hook closed, Cville Weekly published a story about a white couple attacked by two Black men on the Downtown Mall. The white couple said they believed it was a random "knockout game" attack done for pure pleasure. The story received national attention. People were outraged and complained about crime on the DTM with not-so-subtle racial overtones. No longer a paid reporter, and still looking for work, I decided to investigate the incident myself and post the stories on my blog, The DTM. I would discover that the white couple lied to the press about what happened, and had actually provoked the incident. Remarkably, those early blog posts received national attention as well and lead to protests outside the Cville Weekly office. A Princeton University student made it the topic of a cultural study. [You can read DTM's additional coverage on this story here, here, here, and here.]
Maybe, I thought, a personal blog could be more than a personal blog. Explore Charlottesville DTM’s archives.
Since I started that blog in 2012, a variety of independent, DYI news and information sites have emerged, attracting large audiences and changing the media landscape. Locally, journalists like Sean Tubbs and Molly Conger have followings that rival and even surpass local media operations. Traditional media now often get their information and take their cues from those who make up our local social media ecosystem. It’s remarkable how the way we receive news and information has changed.
Still, there’s a tremendous void in our news landscape due to a lack of working journalists. Between 2005 and 2009, the reporting staff at our local paper the Daily Progress went from 42 people to 18 people, which was seen as grim development at the time. But it has become much worse. Today, only 3 full-time news reporters are covering a metropolitan area of 235,000 people.
Your support for Charlottesville DTM and similar independent efforts helps to keep local journalism alive and well in Charlottesville.
Thanks for reading! And thanks for your support!
— David McNair
