Facebook Groups and Pages
There are a few active Facebook groups to keep on the project’s radar during community engagement. Henry and Pittsylvania County residents use these pages to share local updates, events, and discuss community issues. With this, these pages are a likely forum for discussion about Vesper Energy and Axton Solar.
Southside News Today: This Facebook page covers relevant local news from Danville and Pittsylvania. It has mentioned solar news before, making it likely that it would post about Axton solar.
Martinsville and Henry County, Our Town: This private Facebook has 5.1K members and averages 2 posts a day. Its purpose is to celebrate the history of the town and local events, and also presumably serves as a forum for discussing local issues, like solar.
Living in Danville and Pittsylvania County: This public group has 19.8K members and is very active. Members share photos of the community and discuss local events, making it a likely space for discussion about Axton Solar. State Senator William M. Stanley and Delegate Leslie Adams are both members of this group.
Media Hubs and Local Journalists
To date, solar has primarily been covered by state-level and regional news outlets. Coverage at the local level, such as op-eds or articles about specific community benefits, is less common.
Virginia Dogwood: Covers news at the state and county level. It has eight offices and works to provide credible, fact-based journalism that seeks to create a more informed, engaged, and representative society.
Chatham Star Tribune: Covers Danville and Pittsylvania county. It has 25,000 readers each week.
ABC 13 News: Covers local news from Henry and Pittsylvania counties.
WDBJ 7: Headquartered in Roanoke, this station covers local news from Southside counties in Virginia. It has covered clean energy before.
WHSV 3: Headquartered in Harrisonburg, this station covers local news from Southside counties in Virginia. It has covered clean energy before.
Appalachian Voices: This environmentally-focused organization works to advance a just transition to a generative and equitable clean energy economy. It shares energy and climate related Press Releases, and has covered county-level clean energy projects before.
Danville Register & Bee: Covers local news from Danville and Pittsylvania County.
Cardinal News: Covers local news from Southwest Virginia, including Henry and Pittsylvania County.
A few regional and local journalists have covered clean energy in the past. Others focus on local issues and economic developments. This list covers journalists likely to cover Axton Solar, or touch on the topic of solar and its economic benefits. Axton Solar should take a proactive approach to seeking coverage on either renewables in general or a project-specific piece to help introduce solar to the local community. For example, contacting the news outlets to meet with reporters early on or sharing project updates with the reporters throughout the development process could help foster a positive relationship with the local press.
Bill D. Wyatt, Danville Register & Bee: Bill has covered solar energy in Henry County before. Bill also covered the previously planned solar project in Henry County for the Martinsville Bulletin.
Elizabeth Cooper, Virginia Business: Elizabeth has covered energy related issues, including solar and storage projects across various counties.
Paul Collins, Martinsville Bulletin: Paul has covered clean energy before.
Chuck Vipperman, Star Tribune: Chuck is the Southside correspondent and has covered solar energy in the past.
Caleb Ayers, Danville Register & Bee: Caleb has covered solar energy in Pittsylvania County before.
Megan Schnabel, Cardinal News: Megan is a Southside reporter who has previously covered solar energy.
