Congratulations. You have earned the achievement: Local News Finally Glances Up From Its Phone. The reward is nothing. A San Diego news site noticed Dungeon Crawler Carl exists, and they still got the story wrong. Fox 5 San Diego ran a piece called "Dungeon Crawler Carl | Read All About It!" which is the journalistic equivalent of a participation trophy. We have been covering this series for years, and our Book Six Review: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride Barely Worth Your Time actually bothered to read the book, unlike the local affiliate that apparently just discovered a book series has a book in it.
The facts are these. Fox 5 San Diego wrote a story about Dungeon Crawler Carl. That is the entire achievement. They linked to the Google News RSS feed for the book. They did not interview Matt Dinniman. They did not mention Princess Donut, who is the actual star of the series and not just a cat who talks. They did not mention Mongo, who is a dinosaur and therefore objectively more newsworthy than whatever else was happening in San Diego that day. They wrote a story that says the book exists. This is what passes for local journalism now. Meanwhile, our coverage has included a deep look at how Audiobook Narrator Explains Why Princess Donut Is More Than a Joke, which required actually listening to Jeff Hays and understanding character depth, something Fox 5 clearly skipped.
Here is what this means for you, the reader who has been here since book one. It means the mainstream press is still two years behind. It means when the show finally airs, these same outlets will write breathless pieces about this "hidden gem" they just discovered, and you will have to sit there knowing you were there when the crawlers were still in the first floor. The related casting news, where Jeff Hays to Voice Princess Donut in Show After Fan Demand, shows that at least the actual production team understands who the real talent is. Fox 5 does not.
The specific takeaway is this. If a local news site cannot be bothered to name a single character from the series in a story titled "Read All About It," then they are not actually telling you to read the book. They are telling you they read a press release. The open question is whether any of these latecomers will bother to catch up before book seven drops, or if they will just keep publishing headlines that say "Book Exists, Probably." Watch the date on their next piece. If it is about book nine, they are lying because book nine is not published. If it is about anything else, they have already moved on to the next trending keyword.