Keeping Us Free and Independent

Your financial support is necessary for us to cover local news

Happy Independence Day. Today might be as good as any to call out for support of small, local, independent news publications like Sebastopol Times, which depends on the backing of its readers. Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was first printed in the Philadelphia Evening Post on July 6th? “Most Americans read or heard the words of the Declaration of Independence via newspapers and printed broadsides.” (link)

July 6, 1776 issue of the Pennsylvania Evening Post - note the price was “only two coppers.”

This brief note is to thank all of our subscribers but in particular our paid subscribers, who contribute to paying for the costs of a small staff of reporters who produce a valuable source of news about Sebastopol and west county. Today, we need to ask more of our free readers to become a paid subscriber today. It’s easy. See the link below.

After two-plus years, we have grown to 795 paid subscribers, and reach a total of 3,242 subscribers. That means each daily article that we send out is read by over 3,000 people, and some stories get circulated beyond our audience so that our site reports over 5,000 views of certain articles. We are extremely happy to have such dedicated readers, knowing that they want to be kept informed about local news and events. But we also need to grow the number of paid subscribers who pay for this service.

So, as to not take away from your Fourth of July celebrations, I’ll close with a simple call to action. Subscribe for $60/year (or become a premium member at $150/year). Your support goes directly to pay two excellent full-time reporters: Laura, who is supremely skilled at crafting local stories, and Ezra, who is learning the craft but already writing terrific stories for us. Personally, I feel we are lucky to be able to support their work, and if enough of you agree to pay for it, we can keep on providing you with an independent, local news publication that is free to all.