A note from the publisher 

Change isn’t always easy. 

And at The MV Times these days, we are taking on some big changes by shifting to our new membership model, which we announced last week. We want to apologize upfront for some glitches in the rollout of this model. We also want to let you know we are doing everything we can to fix them.

The idea behind the membership model is that we are asking you, our readers, to think of yourselves as not just subscribers, but as part of a community that is coming together to support trusted, local news that serves the wider community. This includes everyone who gets the paper delivered to their home, who picks it up at a local store, or who reads us online. And it includes our loyal advertisers, whose patronage on our pages helps sustain these operations. All of you are a vital part of this community-based news organization. 

We believe this new membership model is the best way for us to bring you in as part of the process of what we do in providing trusted, local news for our community. This is the best path forward to help us create a sustainable news organization that will celebrate the stories of this Island, hold public officials accountable, enlighten and inform our readers on the big challenges we face, housing to climate change. And we do all of that while offering you the great coverage of arts, entertainment, and sports that we provide day in and day out, online and in the weekly print edition.

So how does this change affect you and the way you receive The MV Times? If you are a current MV Times subscriber to the weekly print edition, your subscription will remain as it is until your renewal date. At that point, a measured increase from the current $45 annually to $52 annually will take effect for you to continue with home delivery. On your renewal date, we will remind you of this, and invite you to seize this moment to join our community through the membership model. 

We have several tiers of membership, beginning with the member – entry-level rate of $52, which includes 24/7 digital access to our awardwinning community journalism, on-Island delivery of the print edition, and the ability to add two email addresses on the same account, which allows a significant other to have their own login under your account.

Additional plans include all the features in the member – entry-level plan, plus the added bonus of adding up to four or six additional email addresses for family or loved ones, publisher newsletters, access to a speaker series, and MV Times swag.

As you have likely noticed over the past week, this change has indeed been somewhat difficult. Our website has been slow, and on several occasions has gone down. We are deeply sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, and we want all of you in our community who rely on The MV Times to know we are as frustrated as you are. We also want to assure you we are taking every practical step we can to address the issues. You may have also experienced some trouble logging into the website. And you will see you are being asked to change your password. While all of this is taking place and while we iron out the kinks, we have decided to completely drop the paywall. So you should have free and unfettered access to all of our content while we sort this out.

That said, it is inevitable that while implementing some of these measures, our website is going to continue to be a bit sluggish. The problems we are experiencing have been exacerbated by traditional summer congestion on internet and cellular services, which often causes poor performance at this time of year. Indeed, our reporter Eunki Seonwoo writes in this edition about this congestion and overstretched bandwidth, and the frustrations it causes for all of us across the Island.

In addition, traffic to our website is higher than usual, due in part to our announcement last week of the membership model, which has brought a stream of readers to the site. That is, in a strange way, a bit of good news — that so many of you are answering our call to join us, which requires changing your password so you can get back to relying on The MV Times for up-to-the-minute coverage of the Island. We appreciate your patience, and we are asking for some grace as we sort this out, and we are enthused by all the good feedback about our membership model as a new way to sustain trusted, local news coverage on The MV Times.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience. If you have any questions or good ideas about the new membership model, please reach out to us at memberships@mvtimes.com. Or you can call our customer service line at 508-693-6100 (ext. 132).

Thank you for being a reader of The MV Times, and thanks for sticking with us.