This is the giving season and we are reaching out to our readers for help.
First, let me tell you our story.
We have been publishing local news since Jan. 5, 1995 – more than 30 years – with the same editor and a number of writers and office workers who changed over that period. We’ve had some successful years and some struggles.
Those who have been around a while are used to getting a free paper with nothing in it but news and advertisements about their neighborhoods, friends, and businesses. But over the years, with the introduction of social media, many young folks don’t want to bother with reading a paper and just rely on social media reports, which often are inaccurate. Our advertising has sagged. We are still publishing – but the number of pages has been reduced.
Some of our readers tell us they don’t use the internet or they don’t have computers. They say without their free paper they wouldn’t know what is going on in their local government.
A community needs to know what’s happening locally, especially what their local elected officials are doing. Can you imagine what would happen if no one were watching the governmental bodies here? Also, the local legal notices are in print on paper and are not able to be changed as they can be when kept online.
Our costs are going up. Just this week we received an email from our printers, alerting us to the increased price of newsprint and a price hike. And, you’ve seen the regular postal service costs going up and up.
I am 88 years old and I thought it might be nice to retire and stop going to all the night meetings. Since our paper has fewer pages now, because that is based on the number of advertisements, we cannot afford to pay reporters and the editor does all the reporting and writing.
We tried getting me retired, and that didn’t work out. But we’ll try again. It’s just that now we are struggling to collect on invoices from businesses who are also struggling.
It was suggested that things would go better if the newspaper was non-profit, so we are taking the steps for your newspaper to be of non-profit status so when people give financial gifts, they can get credit on their IRS tax return. We were able to file for a foundation to have non-profit status on Aug. 22 and were told it would take four to six months to get a decision from the IRS.
Then, the government shut down. Now, it’s back up and who knows how long it will take the IRS to get back on track to look at our request.
That’s why we are reaching out to the community for help. You’ve helped us before.
You won’t be able to get a write-off from the IRS just yet, but you could help to keep your local paper alive and serving you.
We hope the giving season inspires you to help us during our time of need. We will be grateful for donations of any size.
Thanks for reading this.
Rosemary K. Otzman
Independent editor
152 Main St., Belleville