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When Christian Hendricks moved to Holly Springs in 2018, there was no local news outlet covering the town, just sporadic regional coverage that missed what he knew mattered most to residents: town council decisions, development, schools and local events.
In November 2024, he decided to do something about it and launched Holly Springs Update (HSU), a free, independently run newsletter built on a simple premise: keep people informed about what's happening around town, with council coverage as the anchor.
Nearly two years later, that bet has held up. Holly Springs Update now reaches more than 7,500 subscribers across various platforms without charging for access, soliciting donations, or running ads. It's a deliberate choice, one Hendricks says he'll revisit only once he hits 10,000 subscribers.
Running HSU solo means Hendricks is reporter, editor, publisher and audience manager all at once, a balance that got harder this year when he returned to full-time work after retiring in 2017, pushing him to take a hard look at his analytics to figure out what coverage readers actually needed most without losing them.
We connected with Hendricks over email to talk about what he's learned building a sustainable, one-person news operation, and where he wants to take HSU next. While our schedules didn't line up for a live conversation, we're grateful for the time and thought he put into his answers, and we hope NC Local and Holly Springs Update's paths cross again soon.
It's been a little over a year and a half since you launched HSU. What have you learned about what your community actually needs from a local news and information source?
Christian Hendricks: The bet on town council coverage as the core was right. What’s going on there is important to all residents. However, you also need to provide more than that. People want to know odd stories, local events, and be surprised.
What's been key to building your audience? Any strategies, channels, or (newsy) moments that made a real difference?
Christian Hendricks: Being an information source, not a partisan. I like to provide context, information, and facts, not opinions. We currently have more than 7,500 subscribers across Substack, Facebook, Nextdoor and Newsbreak. We currently don’t charge or take donations from readers, nor do we take advertising. This is a deliberate choice. I’ve said HSU may move to an ad or a donation model when it gets 10,000 subscribers. We’ll see.
Being email-first has also been key. I deliver to subscribers and don’t expect them to develop a daily habit of coming to the website. I don’t publish every day; I try to be mindful not to become spam. I publish when there’s something I believe people need, want, or should know about what’s happening. My philosophy is: Is the story worthwhile enough for me to send it to someone? If it’s not, don’t send it.
Another key for audience growth has been becoming friendly with moderators of large Facebook groups focused on the area. We publish stories to quite a few, and most let us do so without moderation. With one group, we ended up creating a partnership for a series about the 2025 town council and mayoral elections.
What does a sustainable operation look like for you right now, and what's still a work in progress?
Christian Hendricks: The goal is simple. Growing the subscriber base to a point where enough revenue can be generated to allow, at a minimum, an individual to do what I am doing and live off the profit. If it sustains more than that, great. I believe growing the subscriber base to more than 10,000 will make that possible. I also believe doing that will be easier than finding someone with the passion and background to maintain the coverage.
What tools or tech have been most useful in helping you run HSU as a solopreneur?
Christian Hendricks: Substack, Google, Gmail, ChatGPT, Turboscribe, Grammarly, Adobe, Paint, Facebook, Nextdoor, Newsbreak, Canon 5D Mark IV, cellphone. I have a variety of scripts and instructions I use to reduce repetitive work and for quality control.
What's been the biggest challenge you've faced so far, and how did you work through it?
Christian Hendricks: In April of this year, I went back to full-time work after retiring in 2017. As a result, I had to rebalance the time I spent on HSU and its coverage palette without losing subscribers. That meant spending a lot of time understanding what mattered most to readers by doing a deep dive into analytics.
The good news is that I believe I got it right. Despite tightening coverage and reducing the number of stories published each week, subscriptions continue to grow. Sure, the pace has slowed, but it’s still growing.
Are you working with any other staff or freelancers?
Christian Hendricks: Not at this time. Last summer, I had an intern, a journalism major from NC State. He wrote feature stories about local businesses.
I am currently noodling, allowing community members to submit stories and information about Holly Springs. No guarantee of publication, but at least an avenue of approach. My first angle is to allow “trusted” people to submit first, then potentially open it up to everyone.
How are you thinking about impact, and how do you track it? What does success look like day to day?
Christian Hendricks: Impact is readership. I look at every story’s pages read and email open rates. Each one represents someone who learned something new about our community. Success for a story is a 40% email open rate and a pages-read count above 4,000.
If another journalist or newsroom in North Carolina were thinking about starting something similar, what advice would you give them?
Christian Hendricks: You need to first have passion for it. It can’t be a job first. It has to be driven by a desire to share context and information about your community consistently and truthfully. If it’s only about money, or for the most part about money, don’t do it.
Anything I missed that you’d like to add?
Christian Hendricks: This is a model no one really talks about. Someone in a community who can do this out of benevolence and the desire to live in an informed community. Sure, it may become a commercial entity down the road, but it doesn’t have to. It just needs someone with the wherewithal and desire to keep it going. Some may scoff and say, but what happens if it doesn’t commercialize, and you stop? To that, I say, hopefully, someone else in the community with the wherewithal to do it will step forward and take the reins. One can hope, right?
Thank you, Christian, for speaking with us, and for showing that local news doesn't have to start with a business plan, just the desire to keep a community informed.
Some notable examples from Christian’s approach with Holly Springs Update:
➡️ Residents, Developer Hold Noise Discussion That Escalates Into Wide-Ranging Debate on Proposed Data Center in Apex (NC)
➡️ Holly Springs (NC) Police Chief Details License Plate Reader Program, Confirms Outside Agencies Can Install Cameras Without Town Approval
➡️ Holly Springs (NC) hires consultants to review water and sewer rates as town grows
➡️ Out and About This Weekend in Holly Springs (NC), Apex & Fuquay-Varina (9/11 through 9/13)
➡️ Holly Springs (NC) Unveils 22-Step Plan to Address Housing Affordability
➡️ Lessons from the Iran conflict: The limits of American military power are becoming visible
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