Dear Leader readers,
When local journalism disappears, communities suffer.
We’ve watched it happen in other places.
Together, let’s make sure it doesn’t happen here. Please consider donating to support local journalism.
Your donation helps guarantee that the Leader is here to deliver news that is local, real and not linked to an algorithm. Our staff lives, shops and works right here. We’ve been doing award-winning journalism for more than three decades. Our journalists attend city council and school board meetings, sporting events, community events to bring you the stories and photos of our communities. We call it the first draft of history, and we plan to continue in both our watchdog and supportive roles for decades to come.
But it’s expensive to produce four local newspapers and mail to more than 52,000 addresses. We do it every week (but never weakly). We launched our Support Local Journalism campaign in 2023. Since then, we’ve seen costs go up 22 percent. Two years ago, it cost us $45 per year to produce and send you the paper. Today, that price is $55 a year.
Local advertisers continue to provide the biggest bulk of financial support to the Leader, and we appreciate their commitment. They understand that the Leader is a great way to get their message out to you, our loyal readers. Supporting them is a great way to support local journalism.
A donation of $55 will help support a year of Leader delivery. If you can give a little more, that helps make sure all our neighbors have access to local news, even those who may not be able to donate.
Readers are not required to participate. The newspaper will continue to be mailed free to households and businesses in the communities we serve. Advertisers continue to spend their dollars with us. We think it is only fair for readers to do their part, too.
If having a printed newspaper in your mailbox each week is important to you, please give.
If local stories about local people are important to you, please give.
If having a locally owned and independent news operation is important to you, please give.
Readers, we appreciate you. If you can’t Support Local Journalism financially right now, we would also appreciate knowing you’re with us in this fight.
Thank you.
Peggy Scott, publisher