Keeping local electronic media local.

Here’s an old link, but an enduring concept:

Main Street fights Chain Street: Campaign hopes to persuade people to shop at local stores before heading to the big retailers and regional malls, by Carolyn Said, Staff Writer (San Francisco Chronicle; Tuesday, November 29, 2005).

Yesterday, the Confidentials patronized Federal Hill Café for lunch and enjoyed coffee at the new Buffalo Madison outlet at Slate Run and Charlestown Road (the former Bean Street location), and then we drove to Indianapolis for a concert, pausing in Broad Ripple for snacks and drinks in two brewpubs, book shopping and coffee again – all in locally owned establishments.

NA Confidential is dedicated to several propositions, but the one central to our efforts for the past 18 months is something along the lines of “Think globally – write/buy/act locally.”

Or as we microbrewers like to say with admirable simplicity, “Think globally – drink locally.”

When we got home, the Tribune was waiting. Over the past months, we’ve watched eagerly as the Tribune – a chain newspaper -- has struggled to reinvent itself by expanding its local orientation. The experiment is ongoing.

Whatever the outcome, it points to the need for local news coverage and commentary. Ironically, the worldwide web provides the platform for serving the local community. When used responsibly, blogs, podcasts and forums all complement improvement efforts at the neighborhood and municipal level.

In the beginning, I neither thought much about where NA Confidential might lead nor considered what it might become. The idea was to write, and to be read. As with my own small business, time passes and the narrative takes on a life of its own, and now it seems appropriate to take measures designed to boost the endeavor to the next level. NAC is at a point where the mission can be broadened.

More importantly, existing local entities need to be kept local, and work is underway to achieve an alliance toward this end.

We’re working on it, so stay tuned.