This isn’t an easy post to write, since I’m not used to begging. But as old-timers at the site know, we’ve been trying to find a way to make this site economically sustainable for a long time. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve now written this blog for over two years for free and I don’t regret a minute of it. We’ve paid most of our expenses with your help and are still (just) in the black. But I and my tech/business partner, Robert Cameron, still work part-time for free. I’ve been happy to do so, but in the last month or so, it’s become almost impossible to keep the show on the road and meet my other paid commitments. The sheer volume of emails (400 or so a day and climbing), the amount of web-surfing to keep the site competitive with others, the demands of the Book Club (which is in suspension for lack of time), and the Letters Page (which can sometimes go days without updates because of the task of sifting and editing) have gone beyond the bounds of what I can do part-time for free. Either I give the blog up or I have to give up my other paid work. I’ve tried to re-cycle the blog for columns and that’s helped. But in the end, the work keeps increasing rather than decreasing and I’m afraid of the quality dropping because I’m stretched too thin.
So here’s my plea. You’re the reason I’m writing this blog, and I’m turning to you for help. We’re working hard for ad dollars, but the landscape is still bleak. Many of you have been real generous in the past, for which I’m eternally grateful. But a fraction of 1 percent of our regular readers send us donations, and I hate interrupting the site all the time to beg. So we came up with the idea of a pledge week – like reader-supported public radio and television. All this week, we’re going to nag you to donate something. Then we promise we’ll leave you alone for 6 months. What’s a fair request? I figure that our regular readers, who visit us a few times a week or more, could completely transform the prospects of the site if they gave us $20 a year – a few cents a visit for some. If only one or two percent of you did that, we’d be completely financially secure. I could get a salary and focus on the blog more; I could hire an assistant to help with email, editing, the Letters Page and the Book Club (currently our interns get a piddling stipend and I get nothing); we could add more features to the site; and we could plan for the future securely. If you think of the $20 as retroactive payment for two years of daily work as well as the upcoming year, it’s a bargain.
You know why you like the site, if you do. To me, what started as a whim has become a real journalistic adventure. My interaction with you on a daily basis has been an enormous privilege and a learning experience. And as far as media and political influence are concerned, this little blog is certainly punching above its weight. My plea is: keep us on the road. If we succeed this week in providing a financial basis for the next year, I’ll keep on bloggin’. If we don’t, I’ll have to rethink. I simply can’t do what’s becoming a full time job for nothing any more. And I really want to avoid making people pay for the site, through a toll-booth or paid-only access. After two years of voluntary work, it’s time to move forward.
I hope this experiment isn’t entirely for this site either. If we can prove with this pledge week that there’s a place for reader-supported Internet journalism, then we’ll also help nudge the blogosphere one step further to financial stability. We’ll show that this medium can not only spawn new forms of journalism, but also provide a direct revenue stream from readers themselves – without ads, without big sponsors, without any intermediaries. Other blogs could follow – putting the next big dent in the monopoly of big media. So please pledge today.
Click here to get to a simple page where you can chip in $20 in several easy, secure ways. If you want to give more, please, please do. If you’ve given in the last six months, then no sweat. We’ll hit you up again in May. If $20 is too much for your budget right now, then no sweat either. I’m aware that things are tight right now. But if you’re a regular reader who wants to keep this blog alive, and can afford it, please contribute. One small bonus to donating: If you give us your email address with your donation, we’ll also send you an email newsletter each week starting in the New Year, filling you in on the latest site news, up-coming topics and exclusive pieces.
So please make blogging history, and give this site a financial and journalistic future. Click here for more details.
The Dish 