What it is
First, “What it is” is my favorite dish at one of my favorite Charlotte restaurants. (You’re more beautiful every year, Al Mike’s.) But that’s not why you’re here.
What The Charlotte Optimist is: A new nonprofit local media outlet that exists to serve people who care most about our consequential Southern city.
We aim to help our audience make sense of the place they call home: How Charlotte works. Who makes it work. Who’s bringing big ideas. Who’s carrying the leadership torch now, who carried it yesterday, and who’ll carry it tomorrow. Where we are, where we were, and where we’re going.
We believe that a great city needs great narrators and voices, that truth is essential for productive dialogue, and that honest, independent local journalism is a vital antibody for our growing community.
What to expect
This is a new project, but also a throwback.
Here in the beginning, every Sunday night free newsletter subscribers can expect an original reported column from one of the city’s most experienced, connected journalists.
We’ll aim to provide exclusive insight into Charlotte’s leaders and how they make decisions. We’ll also dig for the stories hidden in Charlotte’s couch cushions. Some weeks we’ll have signature longform features. Others might bring significant exclusives or scoops. Others, a quick perspective on major news events. And others might be heart-on-the-page essays or profiles.
The Charlotte Optimist’s stories come from real conversations with real people making a real mark on our community — no shade to our robot friends.
We’ll traffic confirmed facts over rumors, curiosity over preconceived story ideas, people over partisanship, and memorable tastes over a cheap buzz.
Success looks like you telling your friends that it’s the best local reported column in the country, that it helps you connect with your community on a deeper level, and that you’re proud to have it here.
What’s different about it
Patience and thoughtfulness requires a different business model for local media. The Optimist is a nonprofit media organization that got its 501(c)3 status in the fall of 2024. I mention that proudly because it was the most paperwork I’ve ever seen. I also mention it because our goal is to create a platform built by the community, for the community.
Some of Charlotte’s notable civic and business leaders helped get it off the runway. We are launching with sincere gratitude for the generosity of the founding Optimists, including:
- Ric and Brenda Elias
- Hugh and Jane McColl
- Casey Crawford
- Mike and Mary Lamach
- Atrium Health and Gene Woods
- Michael and Leslie Marsicano
- Blue Point Capital Partners
- Brian and Lauren Castleberry
The Charlotte Optimist will fly in the years ahead with community support. In the future we’ll launch a broader membership program. If you’d like to inquire about becoming a founding member, please email michael@charlotteoptimist.com.
But right now, early on, I’d be most grateful if you just read along each week and shared The Charlotte Optimist and its stories with other people who might find value in it. They can sign up for free here.
Contact
I’d love to hear from you if you have questions about The Charlotte Optimist, or if you have a story idea that you think needs care and attention. Email michael@charlotteoptimist.com.
Friends of the Optimist
A special thanks to our board of directors:
- Brian Castleberry
- Bruce Clark
- Ami Shukla
Also to:
- Blake Pope of Field Day Marketing for the design, colors and branding.
- Jason Murtha for his tech skills
- Kacey Grantham for being my guide into the nonprofit business maze
- Abby Clark for navigating operational setup.
- And Logan Cyrus for making pictures for the upcoming issues
About Michael Graff
I’ve been a Charlotte resident since 2013, but lived all around North Carolina before that. My wife is from Charlotte and grew up on Muggsy and Mr. K’s, graduated from Myers Park High, and her family goes back generations in west Mecklenburg. We’re raising our two boys here. And one of my greatest joys is to simply walk around the city and talk to people who understand this place.
I’ve been in the media business for 25 years, as a newspaper reporter, magazine editor, freelance writer, nonfiction author, essayist, and senior manager of one of the most successful digital platforms in the U.S.
Most recently I was the Southern bureau chief for Axios, overseeing seven teams from Richmond to New Orleans. Before that, I was the editor-in-chief of Charlotte Agenda, which Axios purchased in 2020.
Before that I was a self-employed writer working for outlets all over the world, from POLITICO to ESPN to Garden & Gun to the Guardian. That came on the heels of four years as the editor of Charlotte magazine, during which the publication won numerous awards including a nomination as the best city magazine in the U.S.
Before that, I was the senior editor of Our State magazine, and before that, I was a newspaper reporter in North Carolina and Virginia.
And way before that, I delivered pizzas for Domino’s and worked as first mate on my father’s charter fishing boat on the Chesapeake. My journalism career began then, too, as editor of Lackey High School’s newspaper, back when I was dreaming of becoming a sports writer who covered the Baltimore Orioles.