Hey, John — it’s Tara McGowan, the founder and publisher of COURIER. Thank you for taking a moment of your day to read my message. I’m truly grateful for your support. 

We have an important fundraising deadline in 48 hours, and for the first time in 2024, we’re in danger of not reaching our goal. I wanted to take a moment to explain the urgency of COURIER’s mission and why your support is so necessary right now. 

I founded COURIER as a direct response to the legacy media’s failures in 2016. In a moment, I’ll explain why it feels like we are careening towards disaster again in 2024, but if you’re ready to support democracy’s newsroom, can you chip in $20 now to help us reach our goal?

Here’s the situation: Donald Trump is running for president yet again. This time, he’s not even trying to hide his authoritarian ambition. In a recent Time interview, Trump refused to rule out political violence. He regularly praises dictators like Vladimir Putin and, in a recent speech to the NRA, he floated the idea that he could seek a third term, a move that would violate the 22nd amendment. 

Trump isn’t running on a platform of issues — he’s running to destroy democracy. And he’s not even trying to hide it. 

While the right-wing media continues to prop up Trump at all costs, the legacy media is repeating the same mistakes it made in 2016 and 2020, with coverage too focused on rage-bait headlines, the horse race, and just plain bad news. 

It’s no wonder many of our friends and neighbors are tuned out, disillusioned, and disengaged during a moment in American history where no one can afford to stay on the sidelines.

I founded COURIER to confront this crisis head-on. We need honest coverage of leaders like Donald Trump because American voters must know the truth before they head to the ballot box in November.

At COURIER, we consider ourselves the good information antidote to the bad information crisis. Our innovative model meets communities stuck in news deserts where they are — in their social media news feeds and email inboxes — with fearless local coverage of the 2024 election and more.  

We count on support from people like you to make our news freely available to anyone who needs it. And that’s why our end-of-May goal, and your support, is so important right now.

We have less than 48 hours to raise the $7,000 we need to reach our $25,000 goal. I know it’s a lot, but we can get there if everyone reading this email pitches in just $15.

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Thank you so much,
The COURIER team