This week, our full site launched – along with our paywall.
We love our new website and are so proud of all the hard work that went into its design and construction. Also, we’ve had some pretty damn good scoops this week, in case you might have missed them.
But unfortunately, for some, that means you’re not going to be reading us anymore – because it’s not free.
Our members pay $30 a month to join, roughly $1 a day.
Others who aren’t ready to commit to a membership can download single stories for $5.
It may be more than you’re used to paying for your news. Our model is radically different – we are supported solely by readers and sponsors. No advertising.
This means far less clutter on our website, and also no sacred cows.
I’d like to say that advertising never influences editorial decisions in the news business, but that’s not entirely true.
And unfortunately, the traditional advertiser/subscriber model of daily newspapers isn’t doing that well at supporting a robust, vibrant media needed to serve as a watchdog for the public.
Read this story and look at the graphic that accompanies it.
Those numbers are real. I began working as a full-time professional reporter in 2001, and I have slowly watched most of my peers drop out of this business due to layoffs, pay cuts, furloughs and frustration.
I don’t blame them one bit.
But I do sure miss them. Especially when the pool of us willing to take on the people in power gets smaller and smaller.
This is real. This is happening. You are getting fewer reporters to tell you the real news and more highly paid professionals to spin it in a way that serves corporations’ and politicians’ interests instead of yours.
That I managed to hang in the business long enough to see this happen is a minor miracle.
It hit Ziva and me like a ton of bricks that one of the reporters to whom we had the honor of losing the Pulitzer Prize in Local Reporting had left the business by the time the awards were announced.
Reporter Rob Kuznia told various media outlets: “I was able to pay the rent. But I wasn’t able to save anything. A house was a pipe dream … It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just the way it was.”
He had started at the Daily Breeze in 2010, and employees were soon asked to take a 5.5 percent pay cut.
So if reporters like Rob Kuznia can’t stay in the business and dig up dirt, how are you going to continue to get real, in-depth news?
We’re asking you to show your support for our work with your wallet.
I just gave a small donation to my favorite food truck to help fund its expansion, because I love their fried rice bowls so much. They are crowd-sourcing financing for more kitchen space.
The ride-sharing app Uber is now reportedly valued at $50 billion, after turning the taxi industry upside down.
I got rid of my expensive cable package and replaced it with Hulu and Netflix, which I like better.
Business models change and evolve.
We know $30 a month is not easy for everyone, and we greatly appreciate all the people who have signed up this week.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, please click here.
We’re finalizing a deal with the Tulsa City-County Library system so others can read for free soon at their local library branch.
If you want it to thrive, investigative reporting and in-depth storytelling needs your support, especially on the local level.
We want you on our team. We also promise not to sell you $6 “asparagus water.”
Somewhere in L.A., Whole Foods executives are laughing at all of us.
A photo posted by Marielle Wakim (@marielle.m.n.o.p) on
