January was supposed to be a quiet month. We'd published our welcome editorial on New Year's Day, laid out our editorial philosophy, and planned to ease into regular publishing. That lasted about three days.
By January 6, we'd launched our first major series. By mid-month, we'd shipped a book. By month's end, we'd published two complete multi-part investigations, enforced quality standards that blocked subpar work before it reached readers, and built the infrastructure for what comes next.
This is what we built in January—and why it matters for what we're building in 2026.
What We Launched: Two Series, Twelve Articles
We don't publish standalone articles and call it journalism. We publish series—sustained investigations that build context over multiple pieces, allowing us to go deeper than a single article permits. January proved the model works.
AI in Sports: The New Playbook
Our six-part investigation into how artificial intelligence is reshaping professional athletics launched January 9 and runs through January 30. We've published four episodes so far, with two more dropping this week:
- Part 1: Performance Analytics — How AI is rewriting training regimens and player evaluation ($29.7B market by 2032)
- Part 2: Injury Prediction — The "crystal ball effect" that's cutting injury rates and raising ethical questions
- Part 3: Game Day Intelligence — Real-time strategy adjustments powered by AI analytics during live games
- Part 4: Scouting 2.0 — How AI is finding the next superstar before traditional scouts notice
Parts 5 and 6 publish this week, covering fan experience transformation and the ethical challenges of AI in athletics. What surprised us: readers spent longest on Part 2 (injury prediction), averaging 11 minutes. The topic hit a nerve—teams are making $50M+ roster decisions based on AI injury forecasts, and nobody's comfortable saying that out loud yet.
The series also tested our thesis: does sustained, structured coverage build audience better than one-off articles? Early answer: yes. Readers who started with Part 1 came back for Part 2 at a 68% rate. That's retention you don't see with standalone pieces.
Mardi Gras 2026: The Complete Guide
Our five-part deep dive into Carnival season launched January 6—the day Carnival officially begins—and tracks the entire season through Fat Tuesday on February 17. We've published four parts:
- Part 1: Why Mardi Gras Matters — The cultural and economic significance of Carnival season
- Part 2: The Krewes Behind the Masks — Who actually runs Mardi Gras and how the mystic societies work
- Part 3: Peak Weeks Navigation — Parade season strategy from locals who know the routes
- Part 4: The Art of the Throw — Float builders, costume designers, and the artisans who craft Carnival magic
Part 5 publishes February 17—the day before Fat Tuesday—with a complete guide to the final 48 hours of Carnival. The series taught us something unexpected: cultural coverage performs as well as tech coverage when done with the same rigor. Readers want depth regardless of category.
What We Published: Whispers of Nystad
On January 11, we released Whispers of Nystad, Book One of The Cipher Wheel Chronicles—a historical fiction series spanning 200 years (1700–1899) and seven continents. The story follows Elsa Voss, a merchant's daughter in 1709 Stockholm who inherits her father's cipher wheel and the secrets that built his empire.
Why mention a fiction book in a journalism editorial? Because it's part of the same thesis: sustained narrative builds audience. Articles are immediate. Books are durable. Both serve different reading modes, but they reinforce each other. Readers who follow our reporting on technology, sports, and culture now have a historical fiction option that explores similar themes—power, information, networks—through a different lens.
Book 2, The Nystad Gambit, is outlined and enters drafting in Q2 2026. The plan: publish one book per quarter over the next two years, building a complete historical fiction series alongside our journalism. Some months you want analysis. Some months you want story. We're building for both.
What We Built: Quality Infrastructure
Publishing velocity means nothing if quality suffers. In January, we enforced standards that blocked articles before they reached readers:
- 1,200+ word minimum — No shallow takes. Every article must develop its argument completely.
- Title and meta optimization — 50–60 character titles, 150–160 character descriptions. Not for SEO gaming—for clarity.
- 2–3 internal links — Every article connects to previous coverage, building context over time.
- 2–3 external sources — Verified, credible citations. No "experts say" without naming experts.
- 3–5 concrete examples — Real companies, real numbers, real dates. No vague generalities.
Articles that don't meet standards get blocked at the validation stage. In January, we rejected two drafts for failing word count and three for insufficient sourcing. That's the system working—bad work doesn't reach readers, and writers know the bar before they draft.
Result: zero post-publication corrections in January. When quality gates happen before publishing, you don't scramble to fix errors after readers see them.
What We Learned: Three Surprises
First surprise: Series completion rates are high. We worried multi-part series would lose readers between episodes. Instead, readers who start Part 1 finish Part 3 at 60%+ rates. Sustained narrative works when the payoff is clear and each part delivers value independently.
Second surprise: Cultural coverage performs. We're known for technology analysis, but the Mardi Gras series matched AI in Sports for engagement. Readers don't care about category—they care about depth, insight, and whether you're telling them something they didn't know.
Third surprise: Quality gates save time. We thought enforcing standards would slow publishing. Instead, it eliminated post-publication fixes, reader complaints about shallow coverage, and editorial firefighting. Upfront rigor is faster than downstream repairs.
What's Coming: February and Beyond
New Series Launching in February
AI Grid — A four-part investigation into how AI manages power systems, energy distribution, and infrastructure resilience. Launching mid-February with reporting on how utilities use machine learning to balance supply, predict failures, and integrate renewable energy at scale.
Future of Sports Viewing — How technology is reshaping how fans watch games: athlete-owned channels, streaming fragmentation, VR courtside seats, and the collapse of traditional broadcast bundles. Athletes like LeBron James and Patrick Mahomes are building direct-to-fan empires—what does that mean for ESPN, Fox Sports, and regional networks?
Distribution and Community
We're expanding where and how Nexairi reaches readers:
- X (Twitter): @nexairi_mentis — Daily commentary, article announcements, and real-time takes on breaking news. Follow us for immediate updates between articles.
- Medium — Cross-posting setup in progress. Every Nexairi article will appear on Medium with canonical links back to nexairi.com, expanding reach to Medium's 170M+ monthly readers.
- The Nexairi Brief — Our weekly newsletter curating the best reporting, analysis, and commentary from the week. Sign up here to receive actionable insights you can use Monday morning.
Behind the Scenes: How We Work
Transparency matters. Here's how Nexairi operates:
- Editorial review — Every article goes through fact-checking, source verification, and structural editing before publishing.
- Corrections policy — If we get something wrong, we correct it publicly with an editor's note. Email support@nexairi.com with evidence.
- No sponsored content — We don't accept payment to cover companies or topics. All coverage decisions are editorial.
- Attribution standards — We credit photographers, cite sources, and link to original research. Intellectual honesty isn't optional.
What's Next for You
If you're new to Nexairi, start with a series that interests you. Read three episodes and see if our approach resonates. If you're a regular reader, thank you—your time and attention drive everything we do.
Three ways to stay connected:
- Follow on X: @nexairi_mentis for daily updates
- Subscribe to The Nexairi Brief: Sign up for our weekly digest
- Send feedback: hello@nexairi.com with story ideas, corrections, or general thoughts
February brings new series, expanded distribution, and more of what worked in January: rigorous reporting, sustained investigations, and analysis that respects your intelligence. We're building Nexairi for the long term—not chasing viral hits, not gaming algorithms, just publishing work that matters and trusting readers to find it.
That's the infrastructure we built in January. Now we build on it.
