Y’all, the Independent is closing in on a major milestone: 5,000 subscribers.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that Athens County is home to 53,300 adults, so having 5,000 subscribers means we’re reaching almost 10% of our target audience.
Quintupling our readership in a year is reason enough to celebrate. But we have an extra incentive to hit 5,000: It unlocks $100,000 in cash and services from the News Startup Fund.
For those of you new to the Independent, the News Startup Fund is an accelerator program for organizations like the Athens County Independent. In addition to unrestricted grant funding, the program provides technical assistance — experts in website development and maintenance, marketing and advertising who work on our behalf. We were selected for the program in March 2023.
The results are undeniable.
Progressing to the final stage of the News Startup Fund will make it possible for us to reach our goal of 15,000 subscribers … and financial sustainability. Although subscriptions are free, more subscribers mean more revenue (about 9% of subscribers become donors), and more revenue means we can do more to fulfill our mission of providing accessible public-service journalism.
So if you know people who don’t subscribe yet, please encourage them to join you. Your friends will get our in-depth journalism delivered to their inboxes — and the Independent will be that much closer to long-term financial success.
