New ownership at The Richmond Experience wants to expand community-building initiatives

The Richmond Experience is a lifestyle news outlet that maintains one of the area’s biggest online followings, and the operation was recently sold to two of its employees.

Editor-in-Chief Kelsey Heintz and Chief Marketing Officer Paige Poprocky officially acquired The Richmond Experience from its founders, Samantha and Sean Kanipe, last week.

The Kanipes moved to New Jersey, so the transaction keeps the operation in local hands.

In an interview, Heintz and Poprocky said they plan to keep the newsletter and social media content that has made the outlet successful, but also add more in-person events to help connect members of the community.

“We kind of refer to ourselves as that one friend who knows everything going on in Richmond,” Heintz said. “So we want to lean into that friend role, and meet up with people and hang out and have more of a social aspect to it.

“Making friends is always very difficult post-college. It seems like everywhere we turn, people are looking for, 'Where do we go to meet other Richmonders?'”

The most visible arm of The Richmond Experience is its Instagram account. They believe it is the area's largest media outlet on the site, with 118,000 followers.

The duo is also working on developing a following on TikTok. They said the approximately 14,000 followers they have on that platform skew younger than their Instagram, which draws a crowd that's 25-34 years old.

They’ve monetized that audience through a membership program, which has about 3,600 members paying $39 a year for exclusive newsletters, guides to the city and social meetups.

Poprocky said those community meetups will become a more regular feature in the coming year.

“We want to be a resource that everybody can utilize, and we’re just happy to bring it back to Richmond,” she said.

Both joined the site originally as contributing writers before moving into their current roles.

They said the site will continue to specialize in food and drink news, as well as local events.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to build over the years, and what we’re looking forward to continuing to build,” Heintz said. “Sort of like the concierge of sorts in the city.”