We’ve made a good start, but we still need your help.
There’s no particularly graceful way for a newspaper to ask its readers for money, so we’ll simply tell you where we are, what we’re trying to accomplish, and why we are asking.
The Wayland Post is a nonprofit newspaper delivered free to Wayland homes and businesses. Free to read, however, does not mean free to produce. Every issue requires reporters and editors to attend or watch meetings, read source documents, ask follow-up questions, and check facts. There are also the less visible costs of photography, website and software services, newspaper layout, printing, and delivery.
In June, we asked readers who value that work to consider helping us pay for it. We suggested that a recurring contribution of $20 a month, or $240 a year, could help provide the reporting capacity Wayland needs, while stressing that gifts of every size matter. Since Aug. 28, the Wayland Post has received $3,670 in donations, including online contributions, recurring gifts and checks.
To everyone who was part of that total, thank you. Those contributions have brought us 10.5% of the way toward our $35,000 fundraising goal, leaving $31,330 to raise. That’s still a substantial amount for a small newspaper, but the first $3,670 also shows how this goal can be reached: not necessarily through one very large gift, but through many readers deciding that local journalism is worth supporting. That $35,000 goal represents approximately three months of ordinary operating expenses for the Post.
The goal isn’t about building a large reserve; it’s about stability, enough breathing room that an unexpected printing bill, a slow advertising month, or another ordinary financial surprise doesn’t immediately affect the journalism we can produce.
We also want that support to come from a broad base. Our longer-term goal is 1,000 regular donors, because a community newspaper is stronger when it’s supported by the community it serves. If 1,000 people contributed $240 a year, $20 a month, they would create a remarkably strong foundation for local journalism in Wayland.
Not everyone can give $240, and we understand that. Some people can give $25 or $50. Some can give $10 or $20 a month. Others are able to contribute more. All of those gifts move us forward. And for readers who can’t donate right now, there are other ways to help: keep reading, send us story ideas, share articles, send photographs, and tell us when something in town deserves attention.
If you’ve been reading the Post but have never contributed, we hope you’ll consider joining the people who have. We’re still early in the climb, but we are moving in the right direction. With enough people helping a little, we believe we can get the rest of the way.
Tax-deductible donations can be made using the QR code in the staff box on page 2, at waylandpost.org/donate, or by mailing a check payable to the Wayland Post to P.O. Box 146, Wayland, MA 01778.
