Dear Friend,

News industry analysts are declaring 2019 perhaps the worst year ever for journalism.

Seven thousand eight hundred journalists lost their jobs this year, up from 5,000 from 2014 to 2017. Outlets from CNN to Buzzfeed to local newspapers all over the country were affected. Newspapers like the Youngstown Vindicator went out of business entirely.

But Common Dreams is different. We're nonprofit, progressive, and independent. Hedge fund managers don't dictate what we cover. Journalists do. We cover the issues that matter, not just what gets clicks, from the climate emergency to corporate corruption to America's forgotten forever wars.

And we don't rely on investors, ad revenue, or stock prices—we rely on donations from you, our readers.

As we approach 2020, the nonprofit, progressive journalism of Common Dreams is more important than ever. Will you donate to help meet our year-end fundraising goal of $100,000 to make sure we can stay strong and keep covering the news that matters?

Let's face it: The slow death of journalism may be the greatest threat to democracy that we face today—more than Donald Trump, the role of money in politics, or foreign meddling.

Today, vulture hedge funds and Wall Street bankers are calling the shots instead of journalists, and the results are devastating. Corporate bosses demand ever-higher profits, so ratings and clicks drive coverage rather than journalistic judgment—and layoffs just keep coming.

WIth local newspapers being liquidated, city hall corruption goes unreported. TV news has replaced original reporting with talking head opinion shows that are cheaper to make but lack substance and erode trust among viewers. Issues like war and peace, the climate emergency, and corporate crimes get little or no coverage at all.

In the year ahead, the United States will choose a new president. A conservative revolution is brewing on the Supreme Court. Voter suppression and gerrymandering are undermining democracy itself.

Now more than ever, the nonprofit, progressive journalism of Common Dreams is needed not just to inform readers but to defend our democracy. 

Will you donate now to help meet our year-end fundraising goal of $100,000 and prepare for the crucial year ahead?

Thank you for all you do,

Kimberly Monaghan
Board Chair
for the whole Common Dreams news team