The Knoxville Mercury

Jack Neely makes the pitch for a new weekly paper to a full crowd at the Knoxville History Center, about two months after the Metro Pulse was shut down in October 2014.

Editor Coury Turczyn attempts to explain a unique concept in newsweekly publishing: a paper owned by an educational nonprofit to be called the Knoxville History Project. The Knoxville Mercury would attempt to avoid corporate ownership in order to be truly local and to retain more editorial freedom.

Jack Neely (left) and senior editor Matthew Everett inspect possible new digs at the Walnut Building downtown.

Love at first sight: editor Coury Turczyn spots his dream desk at the Mid-Mod Collective. Probably should’ve waited until he had an income before buying it.

Our first meeting in our non-operational office in the Walnut Building, December 2014.

Our first meeting in our non-operational office in the Walnut Building, December 2014.

Where’s our Internet?!

Matthew Everett commandeers a work surface for his own.

Just look at that view!

The Walnut Building, one of Knoxville’s few mod office buildings downtown. Perfect place to publish a new paper. Except for the rent.

We got our first piece of mail! What the heck is it?

Benton’s Bacon!

Keeping our banking local by starting a checking account at Clayton Bank. Original business manager Jerry Collins oversees the transaction.

A real bank account? Now we exist, probably! Matthew Everett and Jerry Collins sign the paperwork.

Buttermilk Sky Pie Shop donated a portion of sales to support our effort. Those were the days!

We held a dinner fundraiser at the Standard in January 2015, with food donated by chef Matt Gallaher of Knox Mason fame. It was pretty damn good. Art Director Tricia Bateman made some last-minute adjustments to the slide show.

Lots of important people hobnobbing!

Kukuly and the Gypsy Fuego performed. It was a lovely evening.

Appalachia Business Communications generously let us borrow one of their top printer/copier/scanner/fax machines. We couldn’t have operated without it.

Computers! Now we’re getting close to actually writing stuff.

Famed stage manager Mark Arnold donated these items. Yup.

Mark Arnold also gave us this awesome 3D map of Iceland.

Publisher and sales director Charlie Vogel

Senior sales executive Scott Hamstead

Photographer David Luttrell shoots donor/cable TV magnate Zak Weisfeld. In our first issue, we ran a gallery of our “Coalition of the Willing” — people who pitched in to help make the Mercury happen.

Knoxville History Project director Jack Neely signs stuff! Who knew that starting up a nonprofit would require so much paperwork?

The first issue hits our desk after being printed in Bristol, Tenn. and trucked over the mountains, March 11, 2015. The weekly grind begins.

Purty!

Somebody sent Jack Neely a good-luck “money” bonsai tree. Oh, if it had only worked.

Photographer Katharine Emlen drops in with some hot coffee, just for the heck of it!

Our very first ticket-giveaway winner! Carly Duckett got take a friend to Big Ears 2015.

In May 2015, we began a monthly series of Mercury Meetups at local establishments around town. No presentations or speeches — it was just an opportunity for readers and staffers to meet and chat. The first one was held at Chandler’s Deli in East Knoxville.

Hey, we got some schwag for our League of Supporters! Ian Blackburn was among the first to snag a valuable tote bag.

Another Mercury Meetup, this time in North Knoxville’s Casual Pint.

Who’s that familiar-looking guy in the background?!

One of our very first editorial interns, Liv McConnell. Now she’s a big-time editor in NYC!

Mercury Meetup in Maryville’s River Sports Outfitters

Art Director Tricia Bateman and reporter Heather Duncan meet the public.

Our very first Top Knox readers’ poll is a success–thousands of real voters who voted for real Knoxville places. Jack Neely dishes out some awards at Scruffy City Hall.

We held a fund-raiser to hire a full-time staff reporter, and there he is: Clay Duda, along with his wife Melissa. We made them move to Knoxville from California! Meanwhile, new business manager Scott Dickey wonders what he got himself into.

Nice way to start the work day. Didn’t find the pot of gold, however.

There she is: the mysterious columnist (and artist) Donna Johnson.

Did you get your aluminum coffee mug with Knoxville Mercury branding? I wish I did.

Reporters at work! Heather Duncan and Clay Duda squeeze into their office slot.

We got the gang together and threw a show! A bunch of Knoxville musicians donated their talents, and the day-long extravaganza was broadcast live on WDVX. Ah, if only we had known how to demand donations more effectively.

Senior Editor Matthew Everett confers with Stage Manager Amanda Starnes about the show. Just look at their intensity!

Red Hickey kicks off the live broadcast of Knoxtacular! from the stage of the Bijou Theatre, March 2016.

Art Director Tricia Bateman improvises a sign to lure Knoxtacular! concertgoers to our merch table.

The Knox County Jug Stompers cranks it up at Knoxtacular!

Some readers dropped into our office with a surprise breakfast–there were more pastries than staff members!

In June 2016, we stopped working long enough to go to the countryside to talk about working. They call these things “retreats”!

Clay Duda muses over the production schedule at our staff retreat.

In July 2016, we said farewell to the Walnut Building (and the monthly rent bill) and hello to the fabulous Arcade Building (basement) on Gay Street.

One of our more mysterious neighbors in the Arcade Building in downtown Knoxville.

We held an overdue thank-you beer-and-pizza fest for donors at the fabulous Schulz Brau off North Central, August 2016.

Time for a redesign! We originally launched the paper under a hard deadline and then cranked it out on a weekly basis, but in January 2017 we gathered ideas to give the paper a fresh look under the direction of Tricia Bateman. Here we are at Books a Million stealing ideas from other publications!

Whoosh! Where does the time go when you’re constantly struggling to survive? By July 2017 we could no longer see light at the end of the tunnel and decided to call it quits, and held a “Sad Hour” farewell party at Boyd’s Jig & Reel in the Old City. Hey, the grim reaper made an appearance!

Part-time reporter Thomas Fraser offers encouragement.

There it is: two years’ worth of toil, and a lot of stories told.