Earlier this week, Press Forward — a national initiative to revive local news in the United States — announced the 205 independent news organizations chosen to split over $20 million in unrestricted grants over the next two years. Most of the organizations will receive $50,000 a year in 2025 and 2026.
The Athens County Independent is one of them.
Of course, this is great news. More than 900 newsrooms applied for this program, and Press Forward officials said that the grantees were chosen for their work closing local gaps in news coverage, their levels of community support and engagement, their ability to demonstrate progress toward sustainability, and the quality of their leadership. That the Indy was chosen speaks volumes not only about us, but also about you.
At the same time, though, I’m almost reluctant to reveal our good fortune. I know a number of the folks who lead other Press Forward grantees, and we all share the same fear: that our communities will see “$100,000” and think that we no longer need your support.
Because that couldn’t be further from the truth. We will always need our community’s support – today, tomorrow and well into the future.
As I told an industry publication, we view the Press Forward funding “like venture capital … an investment in our growth.” We need to use that funding to increase the numbers of readers, subscribers, donors and advertisers, so that when 2027 rolls around we aren’t left with a $50,000 hole in the budget.
We don’t have a paywall (and we never will), but we do need folks to “pay” for news by becoming recurring donors. Our free subscriptions are nearly double the paid circulation of the Athens Messenger … but less than 280 of you are recurring donors.
We’ll enter our third NewsMatch campaign on Nov. 1. When we come to you asking for your support, I hope you won’t think, “They just got a ton of money.” I hope you’ll think, “I need to invest in local news, too.”
