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Friend,
Last week, McClatchy Company, one of the biggest local newspaper publishers in the country, filed for bankruptcy.
It's just the latest blow to a journalism industry already in a death spiral—and that should worry everyone.
Since 2004, 1 in 5 newspapers has gone out of business. Newsrooms have been gutted. Pittsburgh, a city of 302,000, has no daily newspaper at all.
What does it mean for democracy when journalism fails? It means more corruption in government and less accountability for corporate polluters and Wall Street fraudsters. It means a less informed electorate and an even easier pathway to power for aspiring autocrats, like Donald Trump.
So far, Common Dreams has escaped the fate of so many other news outlets because we have a different model.
We're nonprofit. We rely on donations from our readers, not corporate advertisers. We don't have wealthy investors or corporate executives pushing layoffs to drive profits.
But let's be clear: if readers like you stop donating, we will be the next news outlet to announce mass layoffs or bankruptcy.
Will you help protect Common Dreams from the journalism death spiral by making a donation today? We need to raise $70,000 before March 1 to meet our Winter Fundraising Campaign deadline.
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