25 things you might not know about CharlotteFive
Happy (belated) birthday to us!
The first CharlotteFive newsletter was sent at 7:45 a.m. Nov. 18, 2014, and featured stories about coffee wars, Bojangles’ fried turkey and Patrick Cannon going to prison. We get a lot of questions about C5 from readers, so we decided to let you have a peek behind the curtain.
Did you know CharlotteFive was created during a Charlotte Observer leadership retreat? Our daily newsletter — complete with five original stories about Charlotte news and lifestyle — is the result of a brainstorm by editors, salespeople and strategists, and was launched as a separate brand from the Observer. We’re digital-only, personality-driven and geared toward the the 18-35 somethings who want to deeply connect with our city.
Here are 25 other facts you might not know about us:
lead singer of Third Eye Blind
dogs and babies should be welcome at any brewery
(3) For us, there’s no such thing as a “typical day.” We’re online on and off from 5:30 a.m. to nearly midnight most work days, depending on workflow, interviews, office gatherings, events in the city and however we’re living our lives in between it all.
(4) C5 HQ is located on the 10th floor of the NASCAR Plaza building uptown, where the Charlotte Observer is housed as well.
A video posted by CharlotteFive (@cltfive) on Nov 16, 2016 at 8:44am PST
(9) The C5 team’s favorite work-lunch spot is Earl’s Grocery.
(10) Our favorite random activity is blowing bubbles in Romare Bearden Park. Which we’ve only done once. But it was definitely a good time.
(11) There are a few ways to follow us: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter.
(12) We have a new hashtag for social media: #CLT5.
(13) We have our very own podcast, aptly named the CharlotteFive Podcast. Corey and Sarah host different guests in the C5 Podcast Closet each week to make it happen, with the help of producer Richard Brooke. Listen here.
(14) Our greatest (and sole) culinary achievement is the conceptualization of two hot dogs: The C5 Herbivore and the C5 Carnivore at JJ’s Red Hots.
(15) Our first newsletter went to 11 subscribers. Today we have more than 17,600 subscribers.
(16) Our first 5 stories were: 1. I say coffee, you say espresso, 2. Now we’ll see how he looks in an orange suit, 3. One man’s trash is… Charlotte’s financial windfall!, 4. Bojangles’ for Thanksgiving? Checkout their seasoned fried turkey and 5. Charlotte Craigslist killer? Raleigh founder opens virtual doors of online consignment startup in Charlotte.
(17) Our team meets every week at 10 a.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to talk about events, partner content, story ideas and vital plans like how to decorate our office space with Ikea furniture. Also, we are fairly high-functioning when it comes to white boards.
(18) Sometimes we escape to Amelie’s French Bakery. Caffeine is important.
(19) We’re growing like crazy, thanks to you. In our first full month (Dec. 2014) we had 78,157 page views. Now we get nearly 200,000 page views a week.
(20) Our team generally communicates using the Slack app, thanks to Corey and Tyler’s persistent nagging.
(21) On average, the CharlotteFive editors get about 200 emails a day combined. So now you know why it sometimes takes us a little while to respond.
(22) We loathe the M-word.
(23) You can subscribe to our daily newsletter and dig deeper into our past articles at CharlotteFive.com.
(24) Our most-viewed story, written by Corey (Ha, rhyme), was: Why is there a historic sign reading ‘Tear in the Space-Time Continuum’ in uptown Charlotte? The fact that this sign was ever in existence is one of endless reasons to adore Charlotte.
(25) With this post, we have officially published 2,756 articles.
We like to stay busy.
Photos: Sarah Crosland, CharlotteFive staff
This story was originally published November 21, 2016 at 12:09 AM with the headline "25 things you might not know about CharlotteFive."