Our journalists at the Idaho Statesman appreciate your support through this pandemic. Here’s how you can help
When my wife and I bought the Kuna Melba News weekly newspaper in 2006, almost immediately a couple hundred people signed up for subscriptions — before we even published a few issues. “We just want to support the paper,” they told us. We had several advertisers who ran an ad every week and would hand us their payment every month, saying, “We really want to support you guys.”
In my youthful idealism, I bristled at the suggestion that they were paying us money to “support” us. After all, we were a business, not a charity. You advertise in the paper because it helps your business. You subscribe to the paper because it provides you news and information that you find valuable. Not because you’re doing it out of the goodness of your heart.
Over the next five years, though, I came to understand and deeply appreciate that idea of support.
Yes, our advertisers benefited from their ads, and subscribers found value in our reporting. But even more than that, they felt good about giving us their money because they wanted to see us continue what we were doing. They knew their money was making sure that we could make a go of it, that it paid for my ability to cover every city council meeting and every high school football game. It paid for a new lens for the camera so I could take better photos of their sons and daughters. It paid for printing, color pages, delivery of the paper, computers and the rent on our downtown office.
When we finally sold the business in 2011, I was overwhelmed by the thought that our readers and advertisers had, indeed, “supported” us over the previous five years. No, not a charity, but more than just a business. It was a public trust, a bond, a connection, a pact that if we kept doing what we were doing, they would be there to support us.
And so it is today, with the Idaho Statesman and our coverage of the coronavirus outbreak these past two months (or has it been two years?). We have received so many emails and voicemails, even hand-written letters from readers who have said how much they’ve appreciated our coverage — how much they support us.
Our reporters and photographers have been telling the stories of businesses affected by the shutdown and the people affected by coronavirus, and we have worked to hold our government and our leaders accountable. Our tracking of the numbers, led by assistant editor Chadd Cripe, is worth an annual subscription alone.
For much of our coronavirus coverage, we have taken down our digital paywall to bring all readers — whether paying customers or not — news of public health importance. During our coverage, some may wonder if they’re able to do something to “support” those efforts.
With that in mind, we have set up a donation fund, “The Idaho Statesman’s coronavirus local reporting fund,” at givebutter.com/idahostatesman.
I won’t go into detail here about our decimated business model that was once reliant on print advertising to sustain the salaries of reporters, photographers and editors while keeping the lights on. Through the economic downturn, revenue from our valued advertising partners has declined even further. Suffice it to say, we are becoming increasingly reliant on reader-supported revenues.
Of course, we’d love to have you join our family of subscribers, and I’ll ask that of you first. If you’re already a subscriber, or if you just want to support the reporting we’ve been doing on the coronavirus outbreak and in many other areas, I ask that you consider donating to our new coronavirus local reporting fund.
If you’d rather write a check, you can make checks out to Local Media Foundation, but make sure “Idaho Statesman” is in the memo field of your check. Mail checks to: COVID-19 Local News Fund, c/o Local Media Foundation, P.O. Box 85015, Chicago, IL 60689-5015.
It sure would mean a lot to us, as we continue to make sure we provide you vital data and stories related to this pandemic. And I won’t bristle if you say you’re doing it to support us.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM.