Some of the Ark Valley Voice crew left to right: reporters Carly Winchell and August Toevs, Social Media and Advertising Michelle Pujol, Publisher and Managing Editor Jan Wondra, Senior Reporter Dan Smith, and Foundation President Merrell Bergin. Not present in the photo: Reporter Elliot Jackson, Bookkeeper Susan Roebuck, Investigative Reporter Stephen Hall, and Contributor Landon James. AVV file photo.
Thanks to donations that came in with minutes to spare before 12:00 noon on Saturday, Ark Valley Voice made this week’s $2,500 double-match challenge from two major donors, tripling this week’s gifts. One at a time, in $12/month, or $50 or higher donations you celebrated “Christmas in July” and helped donations to Ark Valley Voice (AVV) and its mission to give truth a voice.
Our gratitude for your support is as high as the mountains that ring this valley.
The good news is that we are 43.1 percent of the way to our “Christmas in July” goal; donations now stand at $12,930.
The challenging news is that we are still 56.9 percent away from this month’s “Christmas in July” goal to raise $30,000 to support our nonprofit newsroom. We’re committed to free and fact-based, in-depth, and investigative journalism. Although we deliver it at no charge, it is not free to produce and professional journalists deserve to make a modest living too.
Donations are 100 percent tax-deductible. If you are able, if you value the news that Ark Valley Voice provides and believe in speaking up for the truth, we hope that you’ll consider a donation of any amount.
It has been said that “truth is the final guardrail of democracy” so, by helping us give truth a voice, you are an active participant in American democracy.
Indeed, thanks to all those contributors who donated to Ark Valley Voice to help keep our reporters working and our mission to provide solid, factual expanded news and analysis you often cannot find elsewhere.
I have seen too often in my decades-long career, in both print and broadcast, the impact of a corporate management philosophy that pay more attention to the ‘bottom line’ than the quality of journalism being provided.
I was a member of the reporting team at the Rocky Mountain News when the Scripps Corporation decided to put their emphasis on broadcast programming and simply abandon vital community voices like the Rocky and simply closed it in 2009, putting hundreds of good people out on the street. A few were fortunate enough to be picked up by the Denver Post, myself included, and it went well for a few years, though I realized that journalistic competition between the Post and Rocky had made each paper better. After new corporate management changed things and brought more layoffs to the Post, I decided to leave on my own, feeling it was too similar to what happened at the Rocky, and retired in 2012 and came to Salida. Shortly after, a hedge fund owner laid off even more Post employees, sadly eroding its quality.
Earlier, while I was an anchor/reporter and later news director for a nationally syndicated radio network in Colorado Springs, I also saw the sad result of corporate owners who decided real news was too expensive, and to lay off the entire department in favor of more sports/talk programming. No consideration given to its important role in news and information – the bottom line mattered more.
The rise of small independent news organizations like Ark Valley Voice and independent newspapers has been the savior for many communities who otherwise would be without their identity and necessary information for a strong civic life. News deserts, so to speak.
I hope many of you in our community will support our efforts to bring credible, local news and comment to our city and region and help us over the top of our Christmas in July campaign. A free press is one of the cornerstones of our democracy; help us keep it robust.
Daniel Smith
Senior Reporter, Member Editorial Board