In recent days, we’ve served you a strong diet of local news about Salem.
We shared word of improving graduation rates at local high schools, and let student leaders explain their own assessment of the results.
We kept you up to date on the Salem-Keizer School District’s effort to take church land for school expansion.
We delivered a wonderful profile of state Sen. Jackie Winters, a devoted public official who is using her life experience to change justice.
And we let student journalists from Chemeketa Community College take you to a marvelous play put on over the weekend at McKay High School.
As our team worked on those stories, there was news in our profession through the week that should matter to you. By one count, more than 1,000 journalists lost their jobs in recent days.
Gannett, owner of the Statesman Journal and one of the largest newspaper companies in the country, reduced staff across the country. In Salem, we understand three veteran journalists who have worked in Salem a combined 59 years lost their jobs. At the same time, the amount of national and international content in its print edition was cut. A national journalism site tracked the layoffs elsewhere in the country.
And across the mountains came word that the parent company of the Bend Bulletin filed bankruptcy – for the second time in recent years. The company also operates newspapers in several other communities around Oregon. Change in news is no doubt coming to every one of those towns.
Locally, Salem Weekly, long a voice of progressives and a source of entertainment news, has gone dark.
I share these developments with you because every one of these affects your ability to get credible news.
That’s why Salem Reporter exists – to reverse this trend and give you vital local news you wouldn’t otherwise have. Reporters Troy Brynelson and Rachel Alexander are plugging into Salem in ways that you haven’t seen in awhile. Reporter Aubrey Wieber is part of a three-person team we manage that is giving you deeper, clearer coverage of state government and the Legislature. The plan is not to just tell you another bill has been introduced or another hearing was held, but to explain what difference any of that makes to you.
Salem Reporter is locally owned and locally managed. And we depend on you, the reader and subscriber. We’ll give you the very best of our professional skills, but we need your help to get stronger and to expand as others cut back. Here’s how you can help:
1. Subscribe. Every subscriber is vital. When you subscribe, you support local reporting and make clear you don’t want it to go away.
2. Share. Help get the word out about us. Encourage those you know to sign up for our free email or take us for a 30-day free trial.
3. Join. “Like” our Facebook page and “follow” us on Twitter.
4. Invite. Our entire staff is available to appear at any local group interested in learning about Salem Reporter and the future of journalism.
5. Advertise. If you have a local business, you can support this effort with marketing that reaches a very engaged audience. Talk to Salem through us at a reasonable price.
Our bargain with you and other readers is this. Support us with your subscriptions and advertising, and we’ll give you quality Salem reporting that is in-depth, accurate and trusted. I hope you find that a deal worth $10 a month. As always, you can reach me directly at [email protected] with your suggestions, comments or questions.
– Les Zaitz, editor and CEO, Salem Reporter
