Want to support an informed community? Donate to the Reader

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

When I brought the Reader back into publication in January 2015 after two and a half years out of print, I was hopeful for our future, but had no idea the newspaper would become as ingrained in the community as it is today. 

The Reader began its life in 2004, founded by three recent college graduates — one of whom continues to work as its editor-in-chief to this day. To say it’s in our blood is a bit cliché, so I’ll just say this newspaper remains a central focus in our lives, for good or ill.

There’s hardly a day that goes by when we don’t hear from one of our readers about something — whether it’s goose poop at the beach, shenanigans within the Bonner County government, growing pains felt during the continued development of Sandpoint, the endless effort to redesign the town or perhaps just to stop us on the street to say we misspelled a word — we hear from you a lot. Sure, some of it is hate mail, and some makes me wish I’d never embarked on this endeavor in the first place; but, after the dust settles, we always receive more love and support than we do hate and vitriol — just barely.

All that said, sustaining a business is no easy feat. It takes sacrifice, humility, determination and no small amount of grit. Often business owners are the first to donate goods or services to a nonprofit’s fundraiser, the last to get paid when times are tough and the first person to take the blame when an unhappy customer gets a bee in their bonnet about something.

But running a print newspaper in 2023? It’s like trying to bring back cassette tapes. 

The New York Times recently reported that more than 360 newspapers have shuttered for good in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic. Sure, closures averaged to about two per week before the pandemic — accompanied by a years-long trend of newspaper consolidations and sweeping layoffs — but conditions the past few years have been less than inviting for ventures like ours.

In the absence of local sources for information, more and more people rely on social media to keep track of events. These ever-expanding “news deserts” now encompass nearly one-fifth of the U.S., amounting to more than 60 million people who have little to no idea what the hell is going on in their own communities.

Overall, 2,500 newspapers in the U.S. — about a quarter of the total number in existence — have closed since 2005. Experts predict the country will lose about one-third of its still existing newspapers by 2025. Even where local papers continue to survive, there are also massive cuts to staff and circulation, while the focus on investigative, watchdog journalism is replaced with infotainment and advertorial articles that are quick and easy to produce and provide zero real news value. 

As far as the Reader goes, we’re in this for the long haul. Three of the four members of our staff were raised in this community and two of us were born here, about two blocks north of the newsroom at Bonner General Health. 

We are independently owned and operated, which means we bow to no corporate overlord. We are invested and we care about the future of this community. Sure, corporate media and social media can inform you of happenings on a national stage, but who is going to sit through a four-hour Bonner County budget meeting and quickly distill it into an article? Who is going to attend the grand opening of a new restaurant, the unveiling of a new art mural or a dedication ceremony for the saving of a historic building? Who is going to hold candidate forums and questionnaires so voters know who they cast ballots for? 

It’s not Facebook, and it sure ain’t The Washington Post. It’s local newspapers, like this one and the Bonner County Daily Bee, who are sharing accurate, verified information about our community. 

As journalism professor Muse Abernathy once said about the impact of local journalism, “Truth of the matter is, who I elect to the school board affects me more than who I vote for president. That’s why we’ve got to get back to rebuilding local news in these struggling communities.”

We’re doing our part, but we’re finding it more and more difficult to remain in operation due to declining advertising revenue and rising costs. To be frank with you all, we need help. If you can afford to advertise, please advertise. If you can afford to donate, please donate. If you still owe for a past advertising run and haven’t paid your bill, please do so. 

At the rate we’re going, the Reader probably won’t survive to the end of 2024, which would be the 20th anniversary of our first edition. We’ve trimmed down most of our overhead and streamlined our operations as much as possible, but the writing is on the wall if we don’t see a change.

Which brings me to my buried lede: The Reader is holding a donation drive from now to the end of the year with the hopes of raising $50,000 to get us over the hump and back into a more sustainable position. Our readers have always been so generous with donations over the years, but the truth is if we don’t start moving the needle in the opposite direction, the Reader will join those other 2,500 newspapers that closed since 2005. With all that is going on in our county and city governments right now, we need more oversight and accountability, not less.

If you value the Reader and want to see us stick around, please consider making a donation of any amount. Every dollar we generate goes right back into our community in the form of the product we produce, the rent we pay and the salaries we earn in order to spend them around town. We’re not padding the accounts of corporate shareholders or generating revenue for some faceless investment firm. We’re a two-room clubhouse on the second floor of the Farmin Building. 

If you’d like to donate online, please visit PayPal.me/SandpointReader. If you’d like to send us a check, please send to Sandpoint Reader, 111 Cedar St. Suite #9, Sandpoint, ID 83864. 

Thanks so much to all of our readers who have supported us over the years. We remain in your service, each and every week, until the wheels fall off. 

Take care, be kind to one another and thank you for supporting an informed community.

Ben Olson is publisher and co-owner of the Sandpoint Reader.