Building a strong foundation for local news

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On May 13, CEO and Publisher Adam Dawes posted an open letter to readers providing an update about how our transition to a nonprofit organization is going and the need to sustain local journalism through memberships and donations. As we near the end of the Spring Membership drive, we understand that it is highly likely that we will not achieve the necessary goals for this drive, which greatly impacts our sustainability and the future of local news. We are resharing his letter today to convey the urgent need for your support. 

Our news organization was a nonprofit a long time before our official transition to a 501(c)3 foundation in January. We haven’t turned a profit in five years and it is likely that without government support during the pandemic, we would have joined the ranks of newspapers that have shuttered across the nation at the rate of almost three per week.

It’s important to remember what is at stake for the health of our communities and local democracy. Without us, it would be much harder for citizens to know how to vote. People would not understand how our police departments investigate misconduct or the rates they stop people by race. Parents would have little visibility into student absenteeism or how math should be taught in our schools. We would struggle to understand how effective our efforts are at helping the homeless off the streets or to engage in the housing debate as our cities struggle to meet state mandates. When storms hit and streets are flooded and the power is out, we help people navigate their daily lives and focus city resources. All this work enables residents to participate in our local democracy and engage in the issues that drive our collective quality of life. 

Unfortunately, this work is becoming harder and harder to sustain. Our print advertising revenue has been cut in half since the onset of the pandemic. Local retail has been subsumed by e-commerce and national chains while real estate listings have shrunk due to high interest rates. We have been working feverishly to rebuild our business model with reader revenue (up to nearly $1M in 2023) and digital advertising (also nearly $1M) while also making painful cuts to close the shortfall (over $800K). Unfortunately, this is not going to be enough to sustain us as we move forward. That’s why we converted to non-profit in January, so that we could tap into the resources of our community and why we need help from people like you to keep our mission alive.

Our goal is to build a new philanthropic revenue stream to stabilize our business and provide a platform for growth. With this new philanthropic funding, less than half of our budget will come from print advertising. While we hope print advertising won’t decline further, it becomes less of an existential concern for our company when it is one of many revenue streams. This is a remarkable diversification in the eight years since we launched our reader revenue program, when our print advertising was 94% of total revenue. We believe we can serve as a powerful and much needed example to the legacy industry of how to transition and rebuild a local news operation.

If you feel a strong local press is imperative to an informed citizenry and healthy community, please join others and help us with this transformation and become a member or make a one-time donation. During this drive, your gift will be tripled with help from two generous donors up to $50K. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Adam Dawes
Peninsula Publisher
CEO, Embarcadero Media