I’ve reported for the New York Times and have covered wars, written books, and magazine pieces. I currently teach journalism at UC Berkeley. Even so, I consider Mission Local, which I founded and still edit, one of the most important – and demanding – assignments of my career.
It’s a huge challenge to make Mission Local financially sustainable in an age when there’s so much news online – much of it fake, chatter, or aggregated. You get what you pay for.
Good, original reporting – news you can trust with reporters you can hold accountable – isn’t free. It takes actual reporters pursuing leads, knocking on doors, making phone calls, and then writing stories that tell you what’s really happening.
It’s because of original reporting that Mission Local has one of the largest audiences of any of San Francisco’s small news sites. It’s because of our reporting that Mission Local won a regional award for community journalism in 2015. It’s because of our reporting that you keep coming back.
Maybe it’s time you joined as a member.
Do you own a business? Becoming a business member will help you get more connected to our readers – your community and customers. Check around. There’s no better deal in town.
Your membership fees cover exactly two costs. A fraction goes to our very reasonable rent. The rest goes to pay Mission Local reporters. I work for free.
Maybe you think you can always join tomorrow or the next day. But if you wait too long, we may not be here.
Here’s what sustainability looks like. We need 400 reader members and 200 business members, and we’re within reach. If our membership structure is too much or too little for you, get in touch and we will work something out. lydia.chavez@missionlocal.com
Anyone who cares about community and journalism should join. This has been a labor of love for way too long. It’s time for more individuals and businesses to pitch in and show their support.
Joining would be an easier proposition if the content wasn’t so viciously biased – pro-crime/pro-tent/pro-drugs/etc. How about how longtime mission Latino homeowners have benefited from tech expansion/rising home prices, how crime has changed around new housing developments, how many jobs have been created on Valencia Street alone.
I just want to say that I’m a Mission resident who pays for a Mission Local membership because I value the reporting here. I want to know the news – the facts – about my neighborhood on a day-to-day basis, including crime, police conduct, housing controversies, new businesses, closing businesses, local events. I would welcome additional stories that analyze changes over time in depth, especially to help inform me as a voter, but I know that deep feature reporting like that takes time/money, so I hope for more people and business owners to financially support Mission Local to enable more of that.
Thank you, Britta, for your support.
Ben: Thanks for your input. We do our best. Perhaps you could point out errors in our coverage or help make it better. If we’re pro anything, we’re pro membership.