The Alexandria Brief started with a simple belief: Alexandria deserved a local newsroom that showed up every day, did the work, and treated readers like neighbors — not an audience to be monetized.

That newsroom turned out to be one person. Me. A neighbor with a press credential, a 5 a.m. alarm, and a conviction that this city’s stories are worth telling right.

A year ago I started The Brief because I thought this city deserved a certain kind of news. Fair, accurate, balanced, and empathetic first. Past the press release, with the staff report read and the follow-up question asked. Corrected in print when it’s wrong, and marked when it’s updated so you know what changed. And written with some care about the people in it: no chasing clicks with a crime headline, no painting the West End or any neighborhood with a broad brush, no treating a family’s worst day as content. The people in these stories are our neighbors. That’s the standard I’ve tried to hold.