Here are some state government/politics news sources:

WTVF Nashville NewsChannel5 Inside Politics
WTVF Nashville NewsChannel5 Investigates
Tennessean Politics
Times Free Press State Politics
Nashville Post Politics
Nashville Scene Pith in the Wind
Memphis Flyer Political Beat

Tom Humphrey is an excellent source of important information and the fact our local newspaper will not carry his blog is another major fail on their part and a major loss for our community and state. I wish him well in his fishing and ask for prayers and money and caring to find investigative journalists who do it for the love of news (like Tom).

This looks like a big opportunity for The Mercury.

Sadly, people really don't care about local politics, they just don't. The amount of money and time it takes to invest in a governmental affairs desk like this is huge. The ROI JUST IS NOT WHERE IT NEEDS TO BE!

However, JBL I will say this. This is an excellent time for the community to support the Mercury as well as KnoxViews or Brianhornback.com

This is really a clarion bell for the community to donate some money to the Mercury, or to Brian's Blog, or take out an ad and show some support with Knoxviews.

This is an excellent opportunity to tag Mike Donila and WBIR and say "hey we really respect how hard you are fighting for us."

This is an excellent opportunity to reach out and say "hey Mike Steeley , thank you for being the only reporter still covering events in the City County Building from 8am to dark."

As many of you know, I am no longer a part of the established media in Knox County. I was let go due to lack of work.

I wish them well, but let me give you a quick example of what is happening in the media world. The public relations departments are becoming the media.

We are in a society where five great reviews on Amazon is worth more than thousands of dollars in ads from a news industry.

Is the KNS replacing him or just abandoning state politics altogether? If the latter, how does the KNS plan to attract subscribers who can get better coverage of national news elsewhere?

Some of Nashville Post politics coverage is paywalled, but it's all eventually unpaywalled. Some morning stories come free at 3 pm; afternoon stories go free the next morning; everything else goes free every Saturday. Or you could just subscribe and help pay my salary!

Follow @npostpolitics for basically an RSS feed - no snarky commentary from me, I just post links. We're hiring a new reporter for Post/Scene starting in a week to replace JR Lind, who just left us, so more coverage will be coming.

You should also be reading Erik Schelzig of the AP — most days it is just Erik, Andy Sher of the TFP and me over at the Capitol. Chas Sisk of WPLN also does a great job.

It's my understanding that Gannett is hiring someone else who will focus on Memphis and Knoxville politics — ie, a combined Rick and Tom — and based in Nashville, but no idea when that person is starting. Or if they'll get to spend most days at Legislative Plaza like Rick or if they'll be stuck in the Tennessean offices like Joel is most days.

Chatt. TFP.

I fear most of his stuff's behind the paywall, but Andy's one of the best reporters I've even known.

In this week's Tennessee Journal, they announce Tom's blog will be on their website. Unclear as to whether it will be behind the TJ paywall, but given comments Tom made to me last night, I'm thinking not? Anyway, keep an eye out here ...

(link...)