I'm glad she's still around and doing okay. I was very worried about her last year.
Credit where it is due and disclaimer:
The below was taken from that wonderful online news source: Reporting SanDiego. It was written, and apparently edited, by reporter, journo, photographer, etc, Nadin Abbott. It is printed here in its entirety solely for the sake of getting more clicks to her site in an attempt to help her out.
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https://reportingsandiego.com/2016/07/28/everything-on-the-internet-is-free-until-it-is-not-and-independent-media/July 28, 2016 (San Diego) We all have heard the complains. Major media doesn’t cover news. We want somebody to cover real issues. We need independent media. Our vision, when we started this journey, was to be more focused on issues that affect people every day. It was to be more focused on social and economic justice. We agreed with many who saw media chasing what bleeds, and not things like the budget.
These issues were rarely covered by major media outlets.
Well, we need your help:
This is just the cost for a series of stories regarding the Border Fire:
4 trips back and forth, 2 tanks of gas per trip.
$30 dollars per tank=$240 in gas.
We had to add $100 to diagnose the engine light. It was likely a sensor, and a good scare. The last possible place you need an engine light coming on is at a wildfire.
We also have some very fixed costs. These range from the city business license, to the L.L.C tax to the state, to keeping the website going. That comes to $1170, a year. These are fixed costs.
We added the Addsense adds since our traffic has grown to the point that is worth for both WordPress and us to do that. Those adds are not raking the money in. I suspect some people think that. They works like Google Adds. They pay out a few cents every time people click on them. We will not see any on that until there are $100 collected.
Why am I bothering with this? Because we need your help. We have a news room of precisely two people. We have yet to see any payout in this endeavor. The decision is truly coming. At the end of the year, for fiscal reasons, we will have to quite brutally honest, decide if we pull the plug on this or not.
I would also like to thank our readers who have chosen to support this project. They are few. We also would like to point out that I know some of those donors are having a very tough time. I know two of them are on fixed income. So step in.
Help.
The reality is that many people, even in the activist community, complain of the quality of the news we have. Or for that matter the slant, or the fact that what matters to them is never reported. We try to report on issues that affect organized labor, communities of color, the poor and the disenfranchised.
Some of those stories are seen by propaganda by a few. Like for example pointing out that yes, there are demonstrations in Philadelphia outside the Democratic Convention, or that the party is trying to keep Bernie supporters out. We have now multiple first hand reports. Some from people who live in San Diego, and we have interviewed in the past.
When we cover local social movement issues, we have gotten interesting reactions as well. It is in the eye of the beholden I suppose. But what is happening in Philly is affecting San Diegans. In November it will affect all of us in some ways as well.
For the record, we hand moderate every comment, since I have personally a couple cyber stalkers. I would say 99.9 percent of all comments have gone live. I made a promise to keep comments clean from those attacks. A few of those attacks have been on you, the reader. So that promise has been kept with extremely tight moderation. So if you post a message and it takes a couple hours, we try to get to them as soon as possible, I might be otherwise occupied…like at a fire line.
Don’t get me wrong. It is a privilege to watch history. While writing for another publication we covered the Bob Filner saga. We watched his resignation and heard a speech where he warned his erstwhile political allies of what essentially has happened. I also was there when the Climate Action Plan for San Diego became reality. I also reported when the city recognized the Hmong community. It was a learning experience for me, and I hope for readers as well.
Some of our stories have made real positive difference in people’s lives. But this cannot continue to be a labor of love, with very long hours, and very little reward.
This is why independent media is rare. Because quite frankly it is not sustainable. At least it is not sustainable if you do not reach out to your wallet and help out. We make it easy. There is a donate button on the side. We promise to continue to work hard, and trust me…we pull long hours.
Quite brutally honest, we are going bankrupt.
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Once again, the above is the sole creation and property of Nadin Abbott: award winner.
