For the last week, we have reached out to you, our readers, to ask for your support to help make our news organization sustainable, so we can continue to provide fair, balanced, fact-based coverage of the big issues on our Island, so we might guide a discussion on solutions to the challenges we face.
These are very tough times for local newspapers, and while we know we are not alone in an intense struggle to keep a local newspaper afloat, we also know we have a unique community on Martha’s Vineyard that has always come together to get things done. And you have truly lived up to the reputation. We are overwhelmed by your generosity and your voices of support.
Week in and week out, we count on all of you who subscribe to the print or online edition, and all of you in the business community and nonprofit organizations who advertise with us. You are loyal customers. Thank you! But these donations to support our operations have gone above and beyond the subscriptions and the advertising, and we are truly grateful to everyone who has stepped up to help us in these challenging times. We believe journalism matters. We believe facts matter. And we believe the truth matters. And your resounding support for these beliefs has just never been more important and more urgent.
Over the past week, we have received over a hundred donations, ranging from $10 from a woman in Oak Bluffs who said that one of her favorite rituals on Thursday is to read the local news over a cup of coffee to a Chilmark entrepreneur, who stepped up with a $5,000 donation in recognition of the important role that community-supported local journalism plays in any democracy.
And pulling us all together was an extremely generous donor who has offered to gift $50,000 in a matching formula, if we can all pull together and raise that same amount before the end of the year. The challenge is a big one, and we are nowhere near our goal, but we still have three more weeks in the holiday season, and if the outpouring of support continues at its current pace, we just may make that happen. The funding we receive will be dedicated to sustaining our journalism, and helping us to grow our initiative to train the next generation of journalists through our work with the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School and our summer internship program and trainee initiative to give young Islanders a chance to work with us after high school.
Here are some examples of donations and comments that have come through in the past week:
Michael, who donated $365, a dollar for every day of the year, said, “Please continue to illuminate the best and worst of the Vineyard, in a factual and unbiased way. Let the reader be the judge, and interpret all the facts without a filter or editorial commentary. Just the unvarnished truth, please.”
Brett: “We’ve been coming to the Vineyard every summer for almost 40 years. We love keeping up on what’s going on. Thank you!”
Peter Costas: “Thank you, MV Times, for being who you are!”
Caitlin McNally says, “Democracy dies in darkness.”
Acclaimed author Richard North Patterson, who donated $260.59, said “We are so grateful for your energy and enterprise and covering your stories vital to Martha’s Vineyard.”
Longtime Island resident and a leader in social justice and civic engagement Phyllis Segal said, “I support (as well as subscribe) because The MV Times is so important to this community!”
An anonymous donor said, “Thank you for everything you do; I love the MV Minute also.”
And one donor added, “We can NEVER take for granted the importance of GOOD local newspapers. I have read many local newspapers around the country, and none compares to ours. Thank you for all you do and bring to the community.”
There is still time to be part of this donor campaign and become what we are calling a
“sustainer” of The MV Times. You can find out more about how to give here.
