The Medford Explainer, a Paper with a Memory

Field notes

The publication organizes its material like a compact newspaper, with a front page, named departments, recurring questions, and translation tools for bureaucratic language. Its lead piece uses a hypothetical data-center award to examine transparency, public comment, water, incentives, and divided accountability in Medford. The page also identifies Walt Mercer as fictional while presenting the civic questions as real, and includes a source queue, dispatches, reports, and an email-subscription option.