Your support matters because it is your way of saying that you believe quality community news matters. The news desert that has formed in Bristol in the wake of the loss of family-owned newspapers is the result of a concerted effort on the part of the new owners of those “community” newspapers: buy up those newspapers, sell off assets, lay off workers (who were in many instances members of the community) and package stories from a central office (often not in the town or city that it was supposed to serve), kick the profits back upstairs, and strip the community of real news coverage–the kind that makes people in power accountable.

TBE is and does the opposite, and we are just getting going. What we have done with sports, we aim to do with reporting about our local government–get into the trenches, get into those community meetings, and provide our readers with information that they can use to make informed decisions about where Bristol is and where Bristol needs to go. At the same time, the idea is to provide the community with a good look at itself and the people who are making a difference. And we promise that every single dollar that comes our way will support the effort, not get kicked upstairs and out of Bristol. At the same time, we have to let our readers know that we cannot do this without financial support.

A news desert is one where readers get a couple of stories, if they are lucky, about what is happening and who is behind the stories. And those stories appear cloaked in “news” from other communities. The opposite of a news desert is a news bounty, a cultivated field of plenty. With TBE, the goal is to remind people how many good things are happening in Bristol, a lively community of 60,000 people, and how many people are working to make those things happen.

Help us make this happen by joining us. Become a member with a recurring monthly donation by clicking the link on our front page. The link will take you to a page where you can decide at what level you would like to join. We also accept donations. There is another link for them. Our goal is to add 1,000 members in the coming months, but the sooner you join the better–and of course, there is no reason to stop at 1,000. There is strength in numbers. We are all in this together. We can do more together than alone.

Please join today.