Narco News: Is There Journalism After Newspapers?

June 9. 2009,
Please Distribute Widely

One Week to Go in Our Spring Fundraising Drive – Please Donate Today

By Al Giordano
Publisher, Narco News

Sao Paulo, Brazil; June 9, 2009: When, in 1996, I left my last job in the US media, more than sixty percent of the population read a newspaper daily. Today, only thirty percent read daily newspapers, some dailies have gone out of business, and others are on their way.

The secret is now out: The daily newspaper industry is dying. Commentators debate over whether this is a "good" or "bad" thing, or whether it is the fault of the industry or the fault of the Internet, but they mostly agree that it's a fact.

And many ask aloud: What will happen to news reporting after the newspaper is gone?

For the past nine years, Narco News has answered that question. In thousands upon thousands of original reports and translations from across the hemisphere, we've proved that there is a sustainable way to make investigative journalism available to the public, if and always when the people want that journalism.

We've never offered big salaries to journalists to do the work of reporting on the drug war and democracy from all of América, and yet day after day, week after week, you're able to read hard hitting reports from Mexico, Central and South America – and now, about policy and politics in the United States – from excellent journalists of talent and conscience.

Whether through Nancy Davies' ongoing ground-level commentaries from the peoples' movements of Oaxaca seeking to rid themselves of a despotic regime, or Kristin Bricker's in-depth coverage of the drug war and Plan Mexico, or Bill Conroy's groundbreaking investigative reports of official corruption on both sides of the border… or our March 26 scoop – confirmed last Friday – that Carlos Pascual will be the new US Ambassador to Mexico… Narco News has provided you with the accurate information you want and need to better know and understand what is happening throughout this hemisphere.

It's worth repeating that we do this without charging you, the reader, for subscriptions and without ever having imposed on you a single paid advertisement.

And it has been possible because so many of you have given, again and again, small contributions that add up to make for a major project and model of what real journalism can, is, and will be.

Thanks to you, we have reached more than 80 percent of our Spring fundraising drive goal. You've donated more than $12,500 dollars toward the $15,000 needed to continue reporting all summer long.

With less than $2,500 to go, I ask that you please consider making a contribution, or matching your previous contribution, by Tuesday, June 16, when we will end this fund drive.

We will end the fund drive whether or not we've met our goal, because we don't want to bug you year round with these appeals, instead preferring to limit them to three or four times a year so that on most days the news we report stands on its own without such distractions.

If we don't meet our goal by next Tuesday, sure, it will require some cutbacks on our part and of the amount of reporting we can do. In the end, it really is up to you to decide whether we can keep up the rapid pace of quality reporting that has marked the work of Narco News for so many years.

Please make a contribution today to The Fund for Authentic Journalism via this online link:

http://www.authenticjournalism.org

Or send your check in the mail to:

The Fund for Authentic Journalism
PO Box 241
Natick, MA 01760 United States

The Fund is a 501c3 nonprofit organization, which means that your donations are tax-deductible in the United States.

Seven days to raise $2,500… Will you do your part?

Thanks for your past, present and future support.

You have helped us to demonstrate that authentic journalism is not dead, and to create a model for reader-supported journalism that can and will survive long after failed and failing models of pay-to-play journalism have gone extinct.

From somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Publisher
Narco News
http://narconews.com
narconews@gmail.com

ENDS

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