Since last October, Al Maloney has been a part of the Indy team as an AmeriCorps service member.
On April 25, DOGE gutted the AmeriCorps program.
On May 1, Al joined the Independent as our full-time production manager.
Hiring Al was an easy decision: In just seven months, they’ve become indispensable to our operations. Losing them would put a serious strain on our ability to maintain our current level of productivity.
Here’s an incomplete list of what Al does at the Independent:
- Final proofreading and posting of news articles to the website.
- Assembling The Bulletin Board and The Scoop newsletters, including updating our lists of government and community meetings and community resources.
- Creating and scheduling social media posts.
- Entering and posting obituaries, letters to the editor and announcements.
- Monitoring activity in over a dozen ongoing court cases we’re following.
Without Al, those tasks would fall back to me, Dani and Keri — which would mean less time for reporting and editing. Operationally, hiring Al was a no-brainer.
We also simply felt that it was the right thing to do. For nearly 60 years, AmeriCorps members have helped nonprofit, faith-based and other community organizations — particularly those in impoverished areas — fulfill our missions. They’ve had our backs; it’s only fair to have theirs.
But the move isn’t without risk. With payroll taxes and healthcare, a full-time position at the Indy costs over $48,000 per year. That’s about a third of our carryover from 2024 — a cushion built in part on grants that we won’t get again this year.
You rely on us for great journalism. We rely on Al to make that work possible. I hope we can rely on you to ensure that going out on a limb to hire them wasn’t only the right thing to do – but an important milestone in our work toward operational sustainability.
We’re asking you to please donate today if you can, to make sure we can continue to deliver the high-quality journalism you’ve come to depend upon.
