“McCall is a place that’s very special to a lot of people, including me. I have a conflict in the fact that I love McCall.”
During an Idaho Land Board meeting about a large-scale proposal to transfer much of the land around McCall to private hands earlier this decade, Governor Brad Little said something that many Idahoans feel. Valley County is special.
Reporting on the issue that day, his words stuck with me.
“McCall is a place that’s very special to a lot of people.”
The governor is right.
I’m a flatlander. Though, I will admit sometimes I wish I lived full-time in Valley County. But McCall is woven into my story, as it is my wife and co-founder Kara’s. We both spent numerous summer and winter weeks in the 1980s and 1990s growing up around Payette Lake. Splashing in the water, building sand castles, getting treats at Ice Cream Alley, gazing at ice sculptures, hiking, snowshoeing, skiing… you name it.
In 2019, we got married – and no place in the Boise valley seemed to fit. McCall though… McCall fit just right. When our son was born, we spent several weeks of our parental leaves during the fall slack season in McCall, bonding.
When BoiseDev launched, we dabbled in coverage of Valley County – mostly because it’s a topic that I found interesting. In 2020, we hired a reporter and dedicated half of her time to covering the area.
But I knew there was more we could do.
For decades, Tom & Tomi Grote, along with Butch Alford, kept the news flame alive and well in the area with the Star-News. When the Grotes operated the paper, we swapped a few stories back and forth. That’s how I came to know and admire the work of Drew Dodson. In 2021, we ran this story with his byline which I almost thought was one of the famous Star-News April Fools pranks.
In the Boise valley, BoiseDev has grown to cover growth, development, business, and plain-old change without a paywall. We’re the only Idaho-owned commercial news outlet in the area.
Last spring, Kara left her corporate job and launched new initiatives in our family business. Events, a popular food newsletter and more. She also wrote a grant application and business plan for a Valley County news site.
Last fall, we were awarded that grant from the Press Forward initiative. That effort is working to pump dollars into local news across our country. The grant comes with no strings and no directives. But it helped us get this off the ground.
And it led us back to Drew Dodson.
We posted a position last fall for an editor for the product now known as Valley Lookout. We hoped to hire someone based in Valley County — and we lucked out when Drew reached out.
Many of you know him from the Star-News, where he worked for more than five years. He lives in Donnelly, skis the backcountry, and knows the ins and outs of the area (he’s even done land surveying work — so he REALLY knows the landscape).
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Now, after months of talking, thinking, dreaming, and planning – Valley Lookout is real.
Here’s our business model. It’s simple. We think we can generate enough dollars from ad packages and donations to pay the bills.
We’ve already had thousands of people sign up for Drew’s free Weekly Lookout email, and it’s PACKED with news and tidbits from Cascade to New Meadows and from Tamarack to Yellow Pine. And yes, it’s free.
As Kara, Drew, our managing editor, Gretchen Parsons, and I strategized on how to make this work, it occurred to us that we have three “rings” of audience. First, we want to make sure this product serves local audiences well. At BoiseDev, we like to say “We put readers first.” This extends to Valley Lookout – and making sure the people who live and work in McCall have access to quality news and information is the first priority.
That second ring is the people who may not live full-time in the Long Valley, but who intersect in another way: they do business here, own property here, or have an economic interest in the area.
The final ring is the folks who, like Gov. Little, love Sharlie or the Donnelly Huckleberry Festival or the sounds of harmonicas in Yellow Pine or shredding at Brundage or relaxing at Shore Lodge or snowmobiling through Round Valley or dining at Rupert’s or snowshoeing Ponderosa or…
If you’re along for the journey, sign up for Drew’s weekly email. If you want to throw us a donation, details here. And if you’re interested in advertising, email [email protected]. And if you have story ideas for Drew – you can email him at [email protected].
