Local businesses are fighting for survival.
Ever since Gov. Jay Inslee ordered the temporary closure of “non-essential” businesses due to the spread of COVID-19, our reporters have been hard at work telling their stories and appealing to the community for support.
In every edition, we feature at least one local business and identify ways for customers to help connect with them in this era of social distancing.
That’s the role of this newspaper as we see it. We’re an advocate, a cheerleader and, when necessary, a watchdog for our community. We’ve been at it for almost 130 years.
Today, we report that The Chronicle is also fighting for its survival, along with newspapers across the country that have seen their main source of revenue — advertising — collapse.
We do so both to be transparent with our readers and as a matter of public interest. It could very well be up to the people of Lewis County to determine whether their community continues to have a newspaper.
As local businesses have closed or have otherwise been disrupted, we’ve seen them make difficult choices to lay off employees and slash their budgets.
This week, we made the painful decision to reduce all of The Chronicle’s reporters to part-time in order to prevent the elimination of a position entirely. Most managers have volunteered for furloughs. Other employees were laid off or hit with reduced hours. These were difficult cuts that stretch — but do not eliminate — our ability to tell the stories that matter in the greater Lewis County area in comprehensive fashion.
In the weeks ahead, we will likely temporarily reduce the size of our publications, following in the steps of other newspapers across the state that are trying their best to stay alive.
These moves don’t heal the gash to our incoming revenue. They simply slow the bleeding.
So we’re asking for help, which is a tough thing to do when we know we’re not the only ones in trouble.
We’re asking for those who have enjoyed our content free of charge for the past few weeks to consider purchasing a subscription or making a one-time or monthly donation through a new campaign at chronline.com/contribute. We’re asking businesses that can to consider advertising as we temporarily reduce the cost and provide new avenues to reach our growing online audiences.
In the past month, our website has had more than 1.3 million pageviews from over 300,000 individual users. Our Facebook page is followed by more than 20,000 people.
These numbers are eye-popping, but they don’t add much to our bottom line. Instead, our subscribers are carrying the burden of financing our publications.
While we’ve long had what’s called a “metered paywall,” we’ve always allowed for a handful of stories to be read at no charge. In times of emergency or disaster, we’ve even provided all of our content at no cost. That has been the case for every major flood and fire, and it continues to be the case as we offer our coverage of the coronavirus crisis as a public service.
We are choosing to publicly confront the idea that the quantity and quality of coverage that we are proud to offer our readers could be in jeopardy.
Community newspapers like ours are shuttering at a rapid pace across the country. In our state alone, around a dozen newspapers ceased publishing in just the past two weeks. Others have cut their staff to the point of being referred to as “ghost newspapers,” still existing but unable to report the news in any effective fashion. Others have ended their print editions in a last-ditch effort to survive online.
We want to survive. We want to continue telling your stories, championing your causes, providing coverage for your children and supporting our fellow businesses.
We are asking for your help to make that happen.
To subscribe to the Chronicle, visit chronline.com/site/forms/subscription_services/subscribe/ or call us at 360-807-8203. To make a contribution online, visit chronline.com/contribute/. For information on advertising and signage, call Executive Regional Sales Manager Brian Watson at 360-807-8215 or email him at bwatson@chronline.com.
Finally, we’d like to thank all of those people, businesses and organizations who support us already.
We appreciate your partnership beyond words.
Keep fighting, Lewis County. We’re right there in the trenches with you.
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This is a good time to note that there are many worthy causes at this time. The United Way of Lewis County is raising money for the Lewis County COVID-19 Response Fund (https://www.lewiscountyuw.com/) to help identify and fill needs right here in our community.
The Visiting Nurses Foundation is delivering meals to homebound seniors. If you are in need of Visiting Nurses’ services, would like to volunteer or want to make a donation, call 360-623-1560.
The Centralia Community Foundation has established a COVID-19 relief fund. Contributions can be made online at app.etapestry.com/onlineforms/CentraliaCommunityFoundation/donate.html or by check mailed to the Centralia Community Foundation, P.O. Box 1642, Centralia Wa, 98531.
If you or your organization are raising money to help assist those suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak, please email news@chronline.com so we can provide coverage.
