Too Much Coffee: Monitor launches Voluntary Pay program

Why do we matter?

Tesha M. Christensen

Why does a small neighborhood newspaper still exist in the days of Facebook and instant online news? What sets the Monitor apart from these other news sources?

We’re Relevant.

The simple answer is we’re your local news source. There’s not another publication that covers the Midway and Como neighborhoods like we do.

We’re Informative.

We write about local businesses opening and closing, about what’s being torn down and what’s being developed, about who is agitating for change and who has paved the way for others to follow.

We tell you about the neighbor who has turned into an entrepreneur, the college student who is giving back to the world, and the Boomer who is following a more sustainable lifestyle.

These are the people in your community. And the Monitor is your community news source. We’re about connecting people through the pages in our newspaper. We print “News for You.”

We’re Reliable.

The Monitor has been delivering news to your doorsteps since 1975. In fact, September marks our 44th birthday. And we’re here to tell you: Print Is Not Dead.

We’re Delivered Responsibly.

The folks who work for this newspaper are connected to the area. We’re not dropping in, writing an article that will tear the area apart, and then flying out. We’re committed to this neighborhood, and the people who live and work in it.

This does mean we approach things differently. We have to.

We don’t do #fakenews.

Will you help cover the costs

of the monthly Monitor?

In the upcoming months, I plan to introduce you to the various people and companies that play a role in getting this newspaper to your front steps and local bulk drop business sites each month. What questions do you have? Send them my way.

We are inviting you and our other readers to help us by voluntarily paying the cost of printing and delivering your paper.

The Monitor doesn’t charge for subscriptions to our monthly newspapers. Like most others, we rely on advertising revenue to pay for the costs of putting the newspaper out – paying the printer, the delivery staff, one full-time and one part-time sales representatives, bookkeeper, and others. We pay for our web site, Adobe and Quickbooks software, phones, and post office box. Because we run a virtual office, we contract with a provider for cloud services and a remote desktop, along with email and other IT services.

We want to make sure that our content is fresh and engaging, and so we pay writers and photographers to cover meetings and conduct feature interviews.

As owner, I’m a jack-of-all-trades, doing the newspaper layout, writing articles, paying the bills, selling some ads – and making the coffee.

I’m committed to quality journalism at the Monitor and its sister newspaper, the Longfellow Nokomis Messenger.

To do that, we’re asking for your help. Would you consider donating $12 – or $1 a paper? How about $24 – or $2 a paper? Maybe you love us so much that you want to send more and pay it forward – we’d love that! One lucky donor will get a four-pack of tickets to the Ren Fest; drawing on Aug. 5.

See page 12 in this issue for our Voluntary Payment donation form or go to our website.

I’d also like to start running photos of readers on our Social Media channels and within our printed pages. So, snap a photo of you with the latest, hot-off-the-press newspaper. Tag us online or email it my way. Let us know what you appreciate about the paper. Let us know what we’re missing. Share story ideas. Send in your letters to the editor and guest commentaries.

We’re relevant, informative, reliable and responsible – because of you.