Dear Readers,
Last holiday season, my late husband and I – as publishers of The Island News – asked for your help for the first time, and you really came through.
You showed us that you love having a local newspaper – one you can pick up and hold in your hands, with articles about people you know and photos you can actually clip and stick on your fridge or in your scrapbook.
While small newspapers around the country are being bought up by hedge funds – or disappearing altogether, turning many communities into “news deserts” – we’re a locally-owned publication employing editors, reporters, photographers, and salespeople who actually live in Beaufort and care about what happens here.
We’re a newspaper OF the community, BY the community, and FOR the community.
You showed us that this matters to you.
You showed us that you value knowing about last week’s City Council meeting. Yesterday’s school board decision. Friday’s high school football game. You want to know about that new restaurant that just opened … The festival coming up this weekend … The construction work on Bay Street … The shootings on St. Helena …
Here at The Island News, we believe that local newspapers are essential – not just to community spirit and cohesion, but to democracy, itself. Sure, we’re here to keep you informed about all the fun stuff – festivals, concerts, parades, adoptable pets, cute kids – but we’re also here to help hold our local leaders accountable.
And for seven years, we’ve been doing it all AT NO CHARGE. My husband Jeff believed passionately that an informed community is a healthy community – and that everybody deserves access to the news.
But free news has never been cheap. This time last year, Jeff and I were struggling to pay our terrific staff, having long since given up hope of ever paying ourselves. This year, that struggle continues. Paper prices just keep rising, along with the price of everything else. The old days when advertising could fully support a print newspaper seem to be over for good.
So this Christmas – inspired by the boundless optimism and dedication of my late husband Jeff, whom we lost just three months ago – I’m asking for your help again.
If you love your local newspaper as much as we love producing it for you, please consider making a donation on our website at www.yourislandnews.com, or by sending a check to The Island News, P.O. Box 550, Beaufort, S.C. 29901. Your donation – no matter how small – will not only help keep us going, it will let us know you value what we do!
My staff and I love creating this local newspaper and hope to do so for many years to come. Thank you so much for your readership.
Sincerely,
Margaret Evans, publisher
