Jesse has been an incredible colleague. In addition to his other duties I also took the liberty of assigning him the honorary title of "Chief Cultural Officer." There is not a better guy with whom to discuss New Yorker articles and obscure movies. I was not able to keep up with him much on music unless we restricted our universe to the sixties and seventies.

I posted the following on Facebook. "Jesse has done an incredible job with the City and we are going to miss him tremendously. He is not only a terrific writer with a unique ability to get to the heart of an issue. He also has great insight into the forces at work in any political system - the actors, the interests, the cultural and socioeconomic forces, the legal and political lay of the land, and evolving narratives framing the entirety of discussion, I will miss our many-times-daily discussions about Knoxville and beyond. It is not often that one has the privilege of working with one with so many talents. I know he will do incredibly well.

We are very fortunate to have Eric Vreeland move into the pretty darn large void. Eric has great knowledge of the community, is a skilled writer, and a great colleague."

I know Jesse will be greatly missed at the City, but I'm looking forward to his new venture.

I, too, hate to see Jesse go. But the Mayor is fortunate she has Eric Vreeland to move up. Scoop's a good guy, been a pro in this town for a lot of years.

I’m sure that Jesse will be a big success in whatever his next venture is. Best of luck to you, Jesse.

Thanks, all. It has been a privilege to work for the mayor and Bill and to work with so many other smart and talented people at the city. I agree with Mike that city communications are in great hands with Eric! I'll have more to report on the future-plans front soon. All the best!

Thank goodness we have people of Jesse’s caliber who are willing and able to fill the expanding void in local news reporting. I look forward to hearing his plans and wish him the best of luck.

c.w.g. was recently let go from The Scene. Any chance?

Knoxville needs - and can likely support - an alternative print newspaper. Maybe JFM, CWG and other talented journalists can once again join forces to produce something worthwhile and sustainable.

It will be interesting to see how local and area news evolves. Maybe it doesn’t need to be a single entity that does everything. It looks like local/area news is evolving into multiple focused sources that are more specialized. As far as information to the community, potentially good.

Maybe like going from the Walmart/Home Depot/etc news model to separate highly skilled information/news craftsmen with their area of focus

I am not moving back to Knoxville, nor involved with JFM's new project. But like everyone here, I obviously hope it's a rousing success!

The problem with most news organizations is they don't tailor to their base. The key to succeeding is to cover businesses that make and spend money.

Property Scope was one of the most interesting and profitable.

The key for a successful brand is exclusivity. If you look at all the brands that have failed, they try to be all things to all people.

On a side note, If Hunley really wanted to bring the Focus to the next level he would bring in Mayshark or at least make an offer.
Even as a guest writer, I could see this being a awesome fit.