2001: A Sebastopol Odyssey

Our future depends on more paid subscribers!

We reached 2,001 subscribers yesterday, and we now have 443 paid subscribers. Thank you so much for being our loyal readers and supporters. However, we need to ask for your help. We need to reach a goal of 500 paid subscribers this summer. Our goal is based on 25% of all subscribers being paid subscribers.

Laura and I started Sebastopol Times in April 2020 because there was no longer a local newspaper or online news service for Sebastopol. That meant that no one covered regularly the City Council meetings or the school board meetings. We have been doing that and much more, covering local news but also helping you keep up on what’s happening in Sebastopol each week. We have been introducing you to all kinds of people who live and work in Sebastopol. I am proud of what we have been able to do, and I have heard from many of you how much you appreciate it.

For most of the 15 months, we have been reporting on a volunteer basis and as an experiment to see what we could do. However, since May of this year, Sebastopol Times began paying Laura $2,500 on a monthly basis, which will be $30,000 annually. We hope to use the funds we have raised through subscriptions, which is about $25,000 on an annual basis. We also pay about $500/month for a one-room office for Laura in Sebastopol. Other than accounting fees and taxes, we also pay for occasional articles from freelance reporters such as Mark Fernquest. We have created a lean operating model for Sebastopol Times, but it still requires more support, more paid subscribers to continue.

If you are not a paid subscriber, please consider becoming one today. As a paid subscriber, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you contribute to the continued success of Sebastopol Times. So far, we have not made any content in Sebastopol Times exclusive to subscribers; that is, whether you are a paid subscriber or not, you still get access to all the articles we publish. We see that as a benefit to the whole community, and we want our articles to be read by everyone, regardless of whether they can afford to pay for a subscription. Nonetheless, for us to provide this community service, we have to get enough people to pay for an annual subscription.

So, to keep going, we need to ask for your help to grow the number of paid subscribers by at least fifty people. Please take out a subscription if you haven’t already; renew your subscription if you’ve been with us from the start; or tell your friends about Sebastopol Times and encourage them to subscribe.

Thank you very much,

Dale and Laura.