Subscription Offer Ends Soon

The Advocate is seeking dollars to add two full-time city reporters and a new city editor. From environmental and business coverage, to offering a voice for the voiceless, we believe that our town needs more full-time reporters holding area leadership accountable.

Covering city council, the school board, county commission, and cops and courts is not generally the work of an alternative newspaper like ours, but someone needs to do it. Studies demonstrate that local governments operate better when they know an active press is watching them. With The Gazette-Times having merged with a paper in Albany, and now running without an editor, the scrutiny of a prying daily newsroom is all but lost on our area leaders.

A quick glance at our pool of city reporters shows a need for increased diversity on staff. The Gazette-Times has only two full-time dedicated reporters left – both of them men, while their staff includes no people of color. Our staff includes a mix of age, gender, and orientation, but – as we are unable to finance anyone full-time – they must typically rely on other sources of income and are bound by outside commitments.

How You Can Help
Our subscription rates for online daily news are $5 monthly for unlimited online access. At $10, we add a daily digital newsletter, and at $15, we add mailed copies of our print publication. We are also asking our readers to talk with area businesses about shifting their ad budgets to local news organizations such as ours.

New advertisers and subscribers have given about $1,600 of the original $8,000 we needed to fund new full-time reporters and editors. One of the largest commitments has come from Larry Desaulniers, owner of local outdoor adventure outfitter, Peak Sports.

Desaulniers made clear from our first meeting that he understands what is happening to news in our community, and would be moving his resources to help.

New subscriptions account for more than half of the funding commitments we’ve received in the last few months. Earlier this month, we started offering a three-month discount for new subscribers. The sale ends on the last day of January, and then it’s back to our usual rates.

We hope you’ll choose to help us rebuild vibrant and meaningful journalism for our shared community. Only you can make this happen, and for those of you already doing your part to help, thank you.

You can find a subscription form on page 2, or subscribe at our website, which offers discounted rates through January.