💬 Welcome to Ballantyne

Where the Neighborhood News Actually Knows the Neighborhood

Maybe it was the school board budget vote nobody covered.
Maybe it was a zoning meeting that changed your street—and you found out after the fact.
Maybe it was when you clicked a “local story” and realized it came from Ohio.

We’ve all felt it: the news isn’t local anymore.

That’s why Strolling Ballantyne exists.
Not to bring back newspapers.
To build something better.

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🛠️ The Problem: Local News Didn’t Just Vanish. It Was Stripped for Parts.

Here’s what really happened:

• Over 2,500 newspapers have closed since 2005.
• The ones that remain are often owned by hedge funds—who lay off reporters, gut coverage, and load up on clickbait.
• National platforms swallowed up ad revenue—while your town council and school board operate in silence

Meanwhile, you’re left with “news” optimized for Google, not for you.

We’re not here to patch the system.
We’re building a new one—ground up, story by story.

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📍 What We Cover (And Why It Matters)

Ballantyne isn’t a zip code. It’s a place. A community. A million small decisions, opinions, arguments, and ambitions. If nobody’s covering those, how are you supposed to know what’s happening?

That’s what we do. At Strolling Ballantyne, we cover:

• 🎓 CMS schools, teachers, and families—because education is politics
• 🏗️ Development, rezoning, and real estate—because growth isn’t neutral
• 🐾 Local people, pets, partners, and parks—because the soft stories matter too
• 🧠 Smart original reporting—not AI filler, not aggregated noise
• ✍️ Branded storytelling for Ballantyne businesses—because your ad shouldn’t feel like an interruption

We’re not fast. We’re right. We’re yours.

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🔒 Built for Trust, Not Clicks

The old media model was simple: collect your data, sell your attention, and call it “news.”
We do things differently.

• ✅ No third-party trackers
• ✅ No popups, pre-rolls, or autoplay
• ✅ No creepy ad networks

We’re supported by our community and local sponsors—not a VC firm in another state.

You won’t find banner ads here.
You’ll find sponsored stories that matter—from local businesses that live here too.

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🧭 Know Who to Call, When It Matters

Sometimes you don’t need a feature story.
You just need a number.

Visit our 📓 Ballantyne Emergency Contacts + Services Guide
It’s got what you need. CMPD. Fire. Waste pickup. Local services. Even the good Einstein Bros (Johnston Rd, we see you).

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🔗 Useful Links & Pages

• 📰 About Us – Meet the team and the Mercury Local mission
• 📢 Advertise With Us – Turn your business into a story. No impressions, just impact
• 📥 Contact Us – News tips, compliments, corrections, raccoon sightings—send it all
• 🕵️‍♀️ Privacy Policy – No tracking, no trickery
• 📜 Terms of Service
• 🎒 Media Kit – For advertisers, sponsors, and allies

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📝 How to Reuse Our Work

We publish under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives license (CC BY-ND 4.0).

What that means:

• ✅ You can republish anything we write, anywhere—with credit and a link back
• 🚫 You can’t change it, crop it, or remix it without our okay

Why? Because trust starts with context.
If our work helps your readers too, great. But let’s keep the facts intact.

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🤝 Here’s How You Can Help

This only works if we build it together. So if you’re reading this, you’re already part of it. Want to do more?

🧡 Help grow this movement:

• 📨 Forward the newsletter to a neighbor
• 📷 Send us a photo of life in Ballantyne (yes, even dog-in-stroller shots)
• 💼 Sponsor a story that reflects your brand—and your values

We’re not trying to scale.
We’re trying to stay.
That means serving one place: Ballantyne.

And doing it better than anyone else.