Friend,

Over the last decade, nearly half of all newspaper newsroom jobs were eliminated.

In 2008, 71,000 people were working in newspaper newsrooms in the United States. By 2018, that number fell to 38,000—a decline of 48 percent.

And things are bound to get even worse in the year ahead after Tribune Publishing was bought out by a hedge fund known as the “destroyer of newspapers” and the merger of America’s two largest newspaper chains: Gannett and Gatehouse.

Common Dreams is bucking the trend because we have a different model: We’re non-profit and independent. We rely on you, our readers, not Wall Street investors. And we cover the issues that matter to progressives that are otherwise ignored by the corporate media.

But without your support, we could quickly join the ranks of shrinking and dying news outlets.

These bloodbath newsroom layoffs aren’t just bad for the industry. It’s toxic for democracy.

Think of the hundreds of thousands of stories that were never written. Stories about the impacts of climate emergency. Investigations of corporate corruption. Day to day coverage of America’s forgotten forever wars.

And the trend is sure to continue as newspaper investors demand ever-higher profits and extract them with never-ending mergers, consolidations, and layoffs. It’s an existential threat to democracy itself.

But while other news outlets are shrinking, Common Dreams is bucking the trend. Just this year, we moved into a larger space to allow us to do something unheard of in the news industry: add staff and grow.

Will you donate to help keep independent, progressive, non-profit journalism alive at Common Dreams? We still need to raise $65,000 to make sure we can stay healthy and keep covering the stories that matter in 2020. All year-end donations will be MATCHED by an anonymous donor!

With deepest gratitude,

Aaron Kaufman
Director of Development
for the whole Common Dreams newsroom