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About Us

Strolling Ballantyne

The news is smarter in sneakers.

Welcome to StrollingBallantyne.com, a privacy-first neighborhood newsroom covering Charlotte’s most sidewalked suburb—one HOA hearing, bagel shop, and zoning controversy at a time.

We’re part of Mercury Local, a new publishing company building thoughtful, community-driven newsrooms across America’s overlooked suburbs. Our job? To serve smart, ad-skeptical, privacy-conscious readers who want to know what’s happening on their block—without being tracked, clickbaited, or served an ad for hot tubs they didn’t ask for.

We believe good local news is a civic utility.

Our Origin Story

In 2024, as hedge funds gutted Charlotte’s legacy media and SEO spam flooded the web, we launched Strolling Ballantyne with a clear mission:
Make neighborhood news delightful again.

We started with one newsletter. A few backyard interviews. One very popular dog profile.
It grew faster than expected.

Today, we publish 6–7 stories per week and reach thousands of South Charlotte readers online and by email—delivering smart, privacy-friendly journalism built around you, not your data.

What We Cover

We specialize in civic character journalism—the kind that reminds you where you live and why it matters. Our weekly coverage includes:

  • 🏛 City & Civic Life: Charlotte City Council, CMS schools, rezoning battles, development fights
  • 🧑‍🎤 Local People: Profiles of neighbors, leaders, artists, weirdos
  • 🐕 Pet of the Month: The news beat you didn’t know you needed
  • 🏡 Real Estate & Growth: New builds, shifting demographics, and what they mean for Ballantyne
  • 🍳 Food & Culture: Openings, closings, franchises, recipes, and suburban lore
  • ✏️ Opinion & Analysis: Local op-eds with teeth (and bylines)
  • 🎟 Events & Goings-On: Community calendars, church BBQs, city hall meetups

Want your story featured? Email us or send a tip.

Our Editorial Process

Every story goes through a transparent, human-first process:

  1. Community sourcing — We attend meetings, talk to neighbors, and read what others miss.
  2. Fact-checking — All names, numbers, and quotes are verified by a trained editor.
  3. Final review — No auto-generated fluff. Every piece is written or rewritten by a journalist, not an algorithm.

We publish under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. You may republish our work unaltered with attribution. Learn more here: Creative Commons License

How We Make Money

We are ad-supported—but not ad-driven.

That means we don’t run pop-ups, surveillance ads, or third-party cookies. Our revenue comes from:

  • 🧾 Branded content campaigns for local businesses
  • 📬 Sponsored features in our newsletter
  • 💡 Community underwriting to support specific editorial beats

We never sell your data. We never accept money to shape coverage. And we never publish “sponsored stories” without disclosure.

Want to advertise in a way that feels like journalism and actually works? Click here →

Who’s Behind This?

We’re a small team of writers, editors, photographers, and residents who believe neighborhood news should be both useful and joyful.

Bagel supplier: Einstein Bros., Ballantyne

Want to write, shoot, or intern? Email us

Join the Movement

Whether you’re new to Ballantyne or born into a cul-de-sac, we built this for you.

🧭 Footer & Legal

StrollingBallantyne.com is operated by Mercury Local.
All original work is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0.

© 2025 Mercury Local. No cookies. No clickbait. No nonsense.