Readers have a hand in helping papers survive
Hello N-R Readers:
Dudley Brier, the writer of today’s main Viewpoint article (see Page A16), is the Northwest’s and perhaps the nation’s town crier regarding the demise of newspapers in the United States. His words, true and chilling, should be a wake-up call to every citizen, in every town and city, and in every state in our country.
As some of you may be aware, I am now wearing two hats — one as a photojournalist and writer for the News-Register and the other as executive director of the nonprofit Oregon Public Information Partnership (OPIP, and opip.org).
OPIP’s mission is to assist independent Oregon community newspapers in developing additional channels of revenue so they may continue to serve their communities with the important news of the day.
The organization is the brainchild of N-R Publisher Jeb Bladine, who took the foundling Oregon Public Access Network (OPAN), that was supposed to be the CSPAN of the Oregon legislature, and rebirthed it as OPIP, nearly five years ago.
Of the many organizations looking for solutions to keep local journalism alive in the Beaver state, OPIP is the only one focused on developing additional revenue channels to allow publishers to keep the lights on.
We were too late the help the Brownsville Times, the latest Oregon newspaper that closed its doors earlier this month, and others who sadly have ceased publication. However, we offer our partner newspapers, each an independent community newspaper across all corners of the state, the opportunity of financial assistance through our community journalism fund.
This allows publishers of our partner publications the opportunity to develop journalistic projects which the community can donate to through OPIP, and receive a tax deduction based on our 501(c)(3) status.
The News-Register led the way with this effort with its (ongoing) Public Access Team project. The efforts of this project allowed expanded reporting on public records, public meetings and legal notices and the timely acquisition and use of such information helped to keep the Yamhill County community informed on the goings on of government.
Yamhill County readers saw the value in adding additional reportage capabilities to the N-R, and responded with donations, but more support is needed in 2025.
OPIP is currently working with partner newspapers to further develop and implement their community fundraising programs. However, for many publishers the daily grind of just keeping the lights on has sidetracked efforts to establish these programs.
We believe this program is a short-term fix until other more long-term solutions can be put in place, such as newspaper sustainability legislation on the state or federal level which is detailed below.
OPIP is invested in working with other organizations such as the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association (ONPA) and state and federal legislators to develop newspaper sustainability legislation such as those acts passed by the New York and Illinois senators and representatives earlier this year.
In Oregon, we are investing time and resources to awaken our state legislators to the crisis among Oregon community newspapers. A recent Poynter.org survey indicated nearly two out of three people believed that newspapers were doing well financially. It appears that legislators fall into this group, so educating them and the general population is another key area of our work.
I hope as the year comes to a close, you will all consider the importance of a newspaper to the soul of our community. You can find ways of doing that at newsregister.com/supportnr.
Another thing you all can do is write to our state and federal legislators and let them know your concern about the state of newspapers in Oregon — and really across these United States.
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