LikeTheDew.com

LikeTheDew.com is an all-volunteer site offering original content with a progressive Southern perspective on politics, news, opinion and culture. Please join the discussion.

Our mission

The old Atlanta Journal boasted that it covered Dixie like the dew, and it was one of many newspapers that made covering the South a major part of its mission.

Today — as a result of widespread economic woes affecting the industry and changes of journalistic philosophy — few newspapers emphasize regional coverage.

In the belief that news about the modern South continues to be not only interesting but important to readers, the Dew attempts to fill in some of the gaps in coverage.

A journal of Southern culture and politics, LikeTheDew.com was founded by a group of former newspaper writers and their friends who worked in other communications fields. Initial plans for the Web site were fleshed out at a meeting of the founding contributors at Manuel’s Tavern in Atlanta, Georgia, in early 2009.

The site has evolved since its founding and will continue to evolve. Currently, some of our writers are experienced professionals, including authors and veterans of news organizations. Others come from many fields. Some are writing for publication for the first times in their lives. We think the mix of writing talent makes the site a more dynamic experience for readers, and we will continue to welcome newcomers to our list of contributors.

Like the Dew is not affiliated with any newspaper or other news organization, and the work we present is not limited to traditional “journalism.” Long-form essays co-exist alongside blog-style entries. Writers are not required to be “objective,” and much of the work that appears on the site is informed by a clear-cut point of view.

Our aim is simply to write about the region where we live. For better, often, and for worse, more often than we would like, the South remains in some ways distinct from other parts of the United States. On this site, we explore some of the reasons for those differences. We single out for praise the best aspects of our region’s culture and politics, and we quite openly advocate changing our region’s worst attributes.

We encourage you, our readers, to join in the discussion.

Y’all come back to see us, OK?

About us

LikeTheDew.com was first published on March 12, 2009, and announced with limited fanfare with a Facebook group on March 26, 2009 (click here to join the Facebook group or click here to become a Facebook friend of LikeTheDew.com).

Each contributor is wholly independent, retains all rights to his or her works and is solely responsible for the content of those works. The views expressed on this Web site are the views of the individual contributors and do not necessarily express the views of any or all of the other contributors.

We write about news and life in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.

About comments

Like the Dew is a public site and allows anyone to comment. Our goal is to be as open as possible to diverse opinions. We do ask that commenters be civil and respectful of each other. We also ask that they limit profanity. In extreme cases, we reserve the right to edit or eliminate offensive comments. Click here for our comment posting guidelines.

Ownership

LikeTheDew.com is an all-volunteer site that was started with an investment of about $15 to register the site address. The site runs on donated servers with donated site maintenance.

The Future

Who really knows? Since its inception, the site has operated as an all-volunteer operation. Discussions continue about whether to attempt to monetize it and, if so, how to do that. No matter what the future holds, we want writing and working for the site to remain fun.

Supporting the Dew

We are all-volunteer, but we do have expenses and ambitions to promote the site to bring more readers here, make the site faster and a better platform (ambitions often cost money). You can help by talking up the dew and recommending stories to your friends and associates on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Digg, Xing and the like. You can help us earn some revenue to offset our expenses by clicking the links from our Dew Shops (we get a small commission on each purchase and won’t cost you a dime more). You can advertise on our site. Or, you can make a donation by clicking here, please note, however, we are not a 501(c)(3) (we haven’t decided about that, yet).