Hi, John, it's Tara McGowan, Founder and Publisher of Courier Newsroom.
I recently spoke with Axios about our plans for 2024 and beyond — and there’s a lot to be excited about!
I'll share more in a moment, but if you're short on time, will you take a second to pitch in $5 before tonight's end-of-month deadline to help us open more newsrooms and bring reliable, fact-based journalism to even more states?
America is facing a growing information crisis. Local news is collapsing across the country — with more than 400 newspapers having shuttered since 2019. Many communities are now left without a reliable source of local news. This means that critical issues like school and hospital board meetings, or the impacts of floods, or droughts on residents are going unreported.
The result is that right-wing disinformation is spreading like wildfire. With the 2024 presidential cycle ramping up, we’re going to continue to see a rise in new and targeted misinformation campaigns to influence different communities and sow doubt and divisions in our democracy.
And that’s what makes our work at COURIER so important. Misinformation spreads fastest when people don’t have easy access to the truth. The information void is now being filled by right-wing groups spreading misinformation and lies to advance their extreme partisan agenda.
COURIER is fighting back. Our sole mission is to neutralize misinformation in the spaces it typically thrives, by delivering quality local reporting to the communities that need it the most. Our network of newsrooms in nine key battleground states doesn’t follow the same profit-driven playbook as the mainstream media. That means we don’t hide our stories behind paywalls or publish sensational stories to boost ad revenue.
As the 2024 election approaches, we’re in a unique position to combat the spread of bad information with good information in as many states as possible. That’s why we recently opened up a newsroom in Nevada—and it’s why we plan on opening up two more newsrooms by the end of 2023.
But opening a newsroom isn’t easy and it certainly isn’t cheap. It takes time and resources to hire journalists and build a network of readers.
And that's why I'm asking you: Will you pitch in $5 before tonight's end-of-month fundraising deadline to expand COURIER's reach and open more newsrooms this year?
Thank you!
Tara McGowan
Founder & Publisher
Courier Newsroom
