Meghan Goth is the executive editor at LINK nky. Email her at mgoth@linknky.com.
I might as well just come out and say it: I’m writing this column to ask you for money.
Whenever I see fundraising campaigns that lure me in with the promise of a good, compelling read or watch only to realize it was a long ask for money, the last thing I want to do is get out my card. It makes me feel duped.
So I figured I would just be up front about it: Would you donate to LINK nky?
You’re probably used to news organizations that charge you for their product in one way or another. You might subscribe to a news site or newspaper; or pay for cable; or buy a box to watch TV news.
Click here to donate to LINK nky
Some local news sites, like the Enquirer, offer some news free and put other news behind a paywall. Others, like the Business Courier, put all of their content behind a paywall.
Most news organizations have some version of a paywall, and lots of our readers are surprised when they find out we don’t have one. But then they’re confused: How do you make money?
That’s kind of a complicated question that you can find the answer to here. But the long and short of it is: Instead of requiring everyone who comes to our site to pay for the news, we’re asking those who can contribute to donate.
This allows us to get the news to everyone – not just those who can afford it.
Any money you donate goes directly to telling the stories that connect and inform our community. So your donations won’t go to buying me a fancy car (let’s be real – I drive a Kia) or to pay for a restaurant reviewer or to send reporters to professional sports games.
Your donations allow Haley Parnell to dig into why Newport residents were getting woken up at all hours of the night by explosions, and eventually even made them stop; it allows Kenton Hornbeck to try to understand why local pharmacies are closing one after the other; it allows Nathan Granger to take months to speak to families and find out whether Covington Schools is adequately responding to reports of a staff member’s inappropriate behavior.
It allows us to talk to 200 candidates in 30 contested races to make sure that you have all the information you need before you go to the ballot.
Your donations make it so we can do all of this while also finding out when that stop light is finally going in on your street or whether a new zoning change will allow you to build a tiny house in your backyard for your parents.
This is not information that you can get anywhere else. And it’s not just information – it’s connection. We work, every day, to advance Northern Kentucky in the region, the commonwealth and the nation by providing transformative coverage of the news of the day with a focus on the deeper issues that matter most to our community.
Click here to read more Inside LINKÂ columns from Meghan Goth and LINK nky President and CEO Lacy Starling.
