There comes a moment in local journalism when you realize this was never just a job.
It’s a calling.
Usually that moment arrives sometime between your first angry Facebook message, your first legal threat from someone who is very upset the arrest report was accurate, and your first email that simply reads: “I know where you live.”
Which means one thing:
Florida has officially entered the independent news business.
This week, we want to welcome Becky, editor-in-chief of THECITRUSTEA.com, to the wonderfully dysfunctional family known as local journalism.
As a sister publication, This Is Topeka is genuinely excited to see where she takes it.
And if anyone is prepared for the absolute chaos of modern community reporting, it might just be someone launching an independent newspaper in Florida — the undefeated heavyweight champion of stories that sound entirely fabricated until you see the mugshot and helicopter footage.
Because somewhere out there right now, Becky is probably preparing to cover a story involving an escaped reptile, a shirtless man named Dale, three patrol units, and a Family Dollar parking lot.
And honestly?
The Midwest respects it.
That’s why Kansas would like to officially say:
Florida… hold my beer.
Around here, we’ve already completed the full independent journalism starter kit:
Public officials threatening lawsuits after public records become inconvenient.
Facebook comment sections turning into digital cage matches.
People demanding “truth” right before blocking the publication page.
Readers somehow accusing the same article of being both “far-left propaganda” and “far-right extremism” within minutes of each other.
It’s almost beautiful in its own broken way.
But underneath the sarcasm is something real.
Independent local journalism matters.
In an era where hedge funds buy newspapers only to hollow them out, where corporate media reduces communities to flyover country, and where algorithms decide what people see before reporters ever get a chance to tell the story — small independent publications still matter.
They matter because local stories deserve local voices.
They matter because communities deserve accountability.
And they matter because somebody still has to sit through city council meetings, answer scanner traffic at midnight, read court filings nobody else wants to read, and ask uncomfortable questions when everyone else decides it’s easier not to.
So before Becky gets her first official doxxing attempt, before someone accuses her of “destroying the community” for accurately reporting public information, or before a local official mistakes accountability for harassment, we simply wanted to say:
Welcome to the fight.
You’re one of us now.
And of course, none of this would be possible without the technical work happening behind the scenes from Jacob Fogg and CopperPress, who continue building tools that allow independent publishers to survive in a media environment increasingly dominated by billion-dollar corporations somehow still incapable of loading a webpage without autoplay video ads screaming at full volume.
Local journalism has never been easy.
But it’s still necessary.
And while Florida may have Polk County Sheriff’s Office and nationally televised chaos, Kansas would also like to respectfully remind everyone that Wabaunsee County’s Eric Kirsch deserves a mention in the category of “small-town law enforcement personalities that could probably carry an entire reality television franchise.”
Godspeed, Becky.
You picked one hell of a profession.
Just saying.
So from Kansas to Florida:
Good luck.
Godspeed.
And remember to keep screenshots of everything.
