Laurel’s mayor, in planning the city’s $45 million budget, has told us he will reduce funding to our local news nonprofit from $50,000 to $20,000 per year starting July 1.
We contract with the City of Laurel to print and mail a city newsletter, written and designed by city staff, that takes up a few pages in the middle of this independent newspaper.
Right now, through our news nonprofit, the city spends about 33 cents per resident per month to get information to every household in town. That’s an amazing, unmatched deal for taxpayers – one that can give all residents better access to city services, events and information about participating in local government. We have been proud to help Laurel deliver that.
However, printing and sending mail from the City of Laurel is not our main mission.
Our mission is to bring you the accurate, locally rooted, independent news and information you will find in this newspaper today, with an emphasis on civic organizations, planning and development, youth, seniors, and yes, independent reporting on city government.
Let your voice be heard, sign up to speak in support of local news at the April 13 City Council meeting by emailing the city clerk below.
We all have a stake in local news
Local news provides the information that residents need to come together to take care of each other, protect the environment and support local businesses and the arts. Local news is where we celebrate our communities and what we do together. It is where shared facts about a shared place create the conditions for people to disagree without disconnecting, and to govern ourselves.
Studies show that without local news, people are less connected to their communities, voter turnout declines, governments waste more money, political corruption increases, and corporate and financial misconduct increases too.
Daily and weekly newspapers across the country are failing to make the transition to the digital age, with readers and advertisers looking for free solutions online. Over the past few decades, local news has dwindled and disappeared in the county town-by-town as well as regionally.
So you are independent, but you want city funding. . . how does that work?
Our local news nonprofit relies on a unique mix of funding that has allowed it to grow and thrive as other news organizations have closed their doors: local advertising, contracts from three local cities, grants, and donations from residents. It also relies on the work of volunteers, both at the board level and among our writers.
We are responsible to lots of stakeholders in our community. Our model makes our coverage more fair and complete: to attract donations and grants, we need to be a government watchdog and a force for equity. To maintain advertising and municipal contracts, we need to celebrate good work in the community. To recruit and retain volunteers, we need to be present and active in our cities.
Our model is working: over last year, with the help of grant funding we launched a local news website just for Laurel, laurelindependent.com. Our advertising revenue increased 30%, and donations doubled. At the start of this year, we hired Laurel managing editor Joshua Garner, an experienced local and political reporter and a professional in nonprofit communications.
If you are doing so great, what do you need us for? The Laurel Independent comes to you today because residents in your city have stepped up time after time, through monthly donations and matching pledges, through advertising, through volunteering their time on our board and as writers, and through advocating with their elected officials.
If we lose our contract with the City of Laurel we aren’t going away, at least not right away: we will continue to find ways to provide local independent news city residents need. But we worry fewer residents will see it, and that ripple-on effects from not getting to every household will threaten our other sources of revenue. Please act, this April, to support free Laurel local news for everyone.
Staff and supporters of The Laurel Independent invite you to join them at a virtual City Council meeting on April 13 at 6 p.m. To sign up to speak and receive a Zoom link, email the city clerk here.