David Fortier

TBE is looking for five (5) people who appreciate good community journalism, one that focuses on our city, the people around us, and even us — look at our sports coverage. Take a minute to become a member–either a supporter at $6 a month, a patron at $12 a month or a benefactor at $20 a month.

The financial support from members of our community will allow us to pay journalists, aspiring ones as well as veterans, from the community to cover our community more thoroughly. There are people here ready to go to work for us.

In addition, we are discussing partnerships with the local high schools and area colleges, ones that also have their own associated costs.

Just to keep things in perspective–we need more than five supporters to get where we would like to be, but five supporters today and five tomorrow get us one step closer.

Just a reminder that until now TBE has worked hard — and voluntarily from our homes with our own computers and cameras and time– to provide our readers with Bristol news.

Now, we are pushing ahead as a viable business, with a high-quality product, for the entire community but especially supporters who recognize the value of community journalism and support our efforts financially. As we become more established–as a nonprofit to ensure that any profits will go back to the community–we will be able to pay going rates for our freelancers, and one day, to hire a staff. Imagine what it would be like to have a stable of reporters covering Bristol again.

It is no secret that local journalism has taken a vicious hit over the past few years and badly needs to reconstitute itself. Experiments to do this are occurring across the United States, even the world. We don’t have to wait for things to evolve somewhere else. We, as a community, can be a part of that evolution right here.

You can be part of this unique and necessary local journalism project by supporting us today. Please take a minute to click here, which will take you back to our homepage where you will find the “Become a Member” or “Donate” buttons. Our goal for today is five (5) people to take this challenge. I will let you know how things go.

Thank you and keep spreading the word about TBE, Bristol’s own online community newspaper.