New Bern Now’s readership continues to grow, but news takes time and costs money to produce. Two reporters, Todd Wetherington and owner Wendy Card, share duties as co-editor.
We are the only local newsroom that produces investigative reporting. Some stories take hours, days, weeks and sometimes months to gather information and research, interview people, vet information, request and receive public records, write and publish.
Currently, we don’t have support staff to update the calendar, death notices, post on social media, produce news emails, or manage subscribers, among other things. Two people can’t do it all. Two months ago, we asked for the community’s help in an article. Special thanks to those of you who contributed, but the amount is not enough to sustain operations.
The bottom line is, NBN needs readers to pay for subscriptions to fund and continue operations.
Background
Before social media became widespread, people read local newspapers because they were an important source of information – the fabric of the community. Journalists reported what happened at city, county and school board meetings, how taxpayer dollars were spent, if a business was opening, what a charitable organization was working on, if a property was being rezoned, if there was a disaster evacuation order issued, local sports, if there was a new development coming to a neighborhood and so much more.
Residents valued local news and paid to subscribe because they wanted to know what was happening in their community. People advertised in the paper and the money was a major source of revenue.
What’s changed?
Hundreds of newspapers have closed since New Bern Now was founded 14 years ago. Others were bought by large corporations who gutted newsrooms. Thousands of people lost their jobs; local economies suffered due to lack of reporting, leaving residents uniformed about important issues and unsure of who to vote for when they went to the polls.
Three large corporations have owned the New Bern Sun Journal since NBN was founded in 2009. Paxton Media Group bought the NBSJ and its two sister papers late last year. Local, state, and federal governments pay Paxton Media Group to run public notices since their newspapers are of general circulation. The notices are published in the classified section of the paper. Just one of these notices can fetch hundreds of dollars.
Three years ago, New Bern Now started covering local government meetings and is the only local newsroom that is independently owned, free from corporate and political influence.
Invest in independent news
If 5% of NBN’s 50,000 readers subscribed on a monthly basis, we could not only continue reporting, but hire staff to cover a greater variety of topics, expand the community calendar, bring back the Podsquad video/podcast/radio show and print a local newspaper.
If you find value in our work, we ask you to contribute what you can afford. Some people pay $5, $10, $15, $20, etc. per month or contribute one-time amounts.
Reach a large local audience
Nonprofits and businesses send press releases to NBN asking to promote their efforts for free. Then they pay to advertise on Google, Facebook and other social media platforms. This practice takes dollars out of the community and pays tech giants. Doing this takes away money that could otherwise support NBN’s work.
NBN offers affordable advertising opportunities. If you advertise with NBN, the monthly reach on NewBernNow.com, social media, news email and YouTube reaches over 300,000, mostly a local audience.
This is what it comes down to. Do you want your local newspaper to inform you of community activities and local government decisions that impact your daily lives?
New Bern Now is at risk of shutting down and the community is at risk of losing investigative reporters, which is what is occurring in newsrooms across the country.
Subscribe by clicking here or pay by check by making checks payable to NC Life Media, LLC, P.O. Box 13614, New Bern, NC 28561.
By Wendy Card and Todd Wetherington, co-editors. Send an email with questions or comments.