Dear reader: The N&O needs your help
Dear reader,
I’m going to be blunt. We need your help.
As the only business entity specially protected by the U.S. Constitution, journalists take their public service mission and responsibilities to heart.
Our reporters, editors and visuals journalists have been working day and night to deliver readers of The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun urgent developments about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting our region and state.
Beyond the barrage of breaking news, we’ve answered hundreds of reader questions, investigated tips, and we have worked to provide the critical context and utility information we all need to navigate these challenging times.
And our readers have responded.
Over the last month, our digital readership is up by more than 300 percent. More people are reading our work than ever before — in part because we’ve exempted all of our coronavirus coverage from the metered paywall that limits the number of stories non-subscribers can read.
We made that decision a month ago when the first cases were emerging in our area, and it was the right thing to do. We believed then and now that we have a critical role to play in ensuring that NC residents have access to timely, accurate information that can help keep them safe.
But in the subsequent weeks, many businesses that advertise with us have had to shut down due to the stay-at-home orders. This has had a dramatic effect on our advertising revenues.
And since most of our stories have been free for everyone during this time, readers have purchased fewer subscriptions than they might have otherwise. Subscriptions are absolutely critical to our ability to sustain the level of coverage we’ve been providing and that people across our region and state expect and deserve over the months to come.
So beginning today, we’re going to start reinstating the metered paywall on some of our coronavirus coverage. For now, stories that address critical health and safety information will remain free along with our daily update and our main overview story.
Many of you reading this are already subscribers, so this won’t change anything for you. Thank you for your continued support. We are here for you.
But for those who aren’t already, we’re asking for your help. We need you to invest in our work by subscribing to our digital and/or print editions.
If you are already a subscriber, there’s another way that you can help. Thanks to a matching grant from Report for America, we are adding a few new staff members to the team who will be focused on telling the long-term story of North Carolina’s recovery from this pandemic.
But we need reader support to raise the matching funds to make this work possible. Individuals, organizations and businesses can make a tax-deductible donation directly to Report for America using the form at bit.ly/NandORFA. All of the money will go directly to paying the salaries of these dedicated staff members.
I realize that many in our community are hurting right now, and we’re just one of many organizations out there asking for support. For some, a subscription or donation just isn’t an option. We understand that. Know that we will continue working to provide you with critical resources and information for free for as long as we can.
But for those who are able, please consider supporting our work in one of these ways. Our ability to continue serving this community — as we have for more than 150 years — depends on it.
Robyn Tomlin is the executive editor of The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun and the regional editor for McClatchy’s southeast news operations.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 6:00 AM.