Charlotte Agenda founder launches finance newsletter
Ted Williams' 'Tiny Money' will focus on money and investing, with a blend of hot takes, ideas and personal finance confessions
The following article appeared in the September 16, 2024, edition of The Charlotte Ledger, an e-newsletter with smart and original local news for Charlotte. We offer free and paid subscription plans. More info here.
Charlotte Agenda founder is returning to Charlotte media with a lighthearted weekly newsletter on finance
Ted Williams, who started Charlotte Agenda in 2015, is starting a new Charlotte-focused media enterprise. (Ledger file photo; courtesy of Ted Williams)
Charlotte Agenda founder Ted Williams is getting back into the local media scene.
A year and a half after leaving Charlotte Agenda’s successor company, Axios, Williams says he’s launching a weekly local newsletter focused on money and investing called Tiny Money.
“I believe people’s approach to money is changing,” Williams told The Ledger. “People are more transparent with their salary. Ways of spending money have totally changed. … I miss writing. Money feels taboo, but that is changing, and personally, I just miss weighing in on fun, positive Charlotte news.”
Williams, whose background is in digital marketing, shook up the Charlotte media scene in 2015 with the launch of Charlotte Agenda. Aimed at millennials, it provided a daily blend of blog-style hot takes mixed with food and events coverage, packaged in a slick and modern design and robust social media presence. It was backed financially by big advertisers. It later evolved to occasionally include more traditional news topics and even won a $150,000 grant from the Knight Foundation “to deliver investigative and accountability reporting.”
Williams sold Agenda to Axios in 2020 for a reported $5M and stuck with the company to help introduce similar newsletters in more than two dozen cities. He left Axios in early 2023, after Axios was sold to media giant Cox Enterprises.
‘Bullish,’ ‘half-baked’: Tiny Money is described on its website as a weekly “bite-sized newsletter breaking down Charlotte trends and headlines that impact your wallet.” It says it will include “bullish hot takes,” “personal finance confessions” and “half-baked investment ideas.” The new venture is open for advertising, has a paid job board and offers consulting services.
Williams told The Ledger he has plenty of pent-up spicy hot takes including, he says, “making a public offer to buy a legacy media asset.”
The first issue of Tiny Money is scheduled to come out Thursday. —Tony Mecia
Related Ledger articles:
“Building Charlotte Agenda” (🔒, April 7, 2021)
“Q&A: Charlotte Agenda co-founder Ted Williams on leaving Axios — and the importance of a ‘laser focus’” (🔒, March 29, 2023)
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Executive editor: Tony Mecia; Managing editor: Cristina Bolling; Staff writer: Lindsey Banks; Business manager: Brie Chrisman