The ‘Boomtown’ team, from left, Stephanie Nakleh, Minesh Bacrania and Sam McRae. Courtesy photo
Boomtown: Stories of a Changing Los Alamos is a new media collaboration that takes a deeper look into the stories within Los Alamos. In the fall of 2023, when Stephanie Nakhleh and Minesh Bacrania were formally introduced, the two soon realized they shared a commitment to understanding what is happening in their town, and to bringing that information directly to other residents. As Bacrania puts it, “we want to tell local stories from a distinct perspective. Our goal is to foster informed discussion and civil debate on the issues that matter to Los Alamos.” The project combines Nakhleh’s decades of experience as a journalist with Bacrania’s knack for visual storytelling to lay the information foundation necessary for a strong and connected community. The third member of Boomtown, Sam McRae, is a writer and a former employee of the Los Alamos Commerce & Development Corporation (LACDC), giving her a strong connection with the Los Alamos business community. “When Minesh and Stephanie told me what they were doing, I knew I wanted to be a part of it in some way,” says McRae.
The name “Boomtown” is a nod to the town’s rapid growth and the affluence and prosperity of many of its inhabitants. It also has a distinctly Los Alamos meaning, one appreciated by residents whose windows often rattle.
Why does Los Alamos need another local media outlet? Tech giants have been mining journalism for advertising profit for a decade now, causing the death of thousands of small-town newspapers all over the country. “When local journalism dies, conspiracies proliferate and a town’s sense of community suffers,” says Nakhleh. “While Los Alamos has managed to keep alive some news publications whose dedicated staff does the best they can, the newspaper where I first worked, the Los Alamos Monitor, folded after the pandemic.”
To deal with these issues, Boomtown has adopted the Substack model of providing content directly to paying subscribers. Boomtown has no advertising, allowing the Boomtown team to maintain its editorial freedom and independence. And McRae’s personal experience with Substack publications provides the Boomtown team with a knowledge base in this rapidly evolving media ecosystem.
Boomtown is currently working on its third article in a series about housing insecurity and homelessness in Los Alamos. Future stories will include interviews with community leaders and in-depth examinations of a variety of additional topics including: human-wildlife conflicts within Los Alamos, the relationship between the business community and Los Alamos County, profiles of community members, an examination of youth and mental health, and issues critical to the civic sustainability of Los Alamos. You can subscribe to Boomtown at BoomtownLosAlamos.org.
Access to much content will be free, but tiered paid subscriptions will be available after the first of the year for further content as well as additional member benefits such as in-person events and member-based forums. “If you want to know more about the county’s budget, how LANL gross receipts are being spent, what’s going on inside the schools, why rents are skyrocketing, and what all those orange barrels along Trinity mean,” says Nakhleh, “you have a chance to fund that kind of reporting — directly.”