By David Fortier

TBE is pushing ahead as a viable business, with the goal of providing the community with a high-quality news operation that covers Bristol exclusively. Our voluntary effort has shown that people turn to us for their news in large numbers. Already this month TBE has had over 63,000 visits, 15,000 this week alone. That tells us people are paying attention.

Time to get serious especially when our efforts to attract more support comes up short as that little experimental Saturday afternoon challenge did. Result, one new donor of the five we hoped for. (I told you I would get back with the results.) But that’s okay because we are here for the duration. And think of this, our presence has already impacted coverage by a local competitor. They have tried to be better because TBE exists, not because they decided it on their own–and what about that subscription?

As we become more established–as a nonprofit to ensure that the community reaps the benefits–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 for the sake of informing people and not for profit.

And, of course, as a community operation and a non-profit, our staff and editors are responsible to you and your concerns first and foremost. We do our best with limited resources to do that now. With more resources, we can do better.

Experiments to recover and reconstitute community news coverage abound. Fly over reporting, what has transpired as a result of the dismantling of local and family-owned newspapers, simply cannot address local issues. For-profit models suck profit out of communities because that is their goal. Journalism is secondary. Our model emphasizes the local, while pouring resources back into the community beginning with high quality journalism. Support TBE and you support a new way of doing news.

Please take a minute to click here, which will take you back to our membership pages for options. Our goal for today is 10 people who will meet this challenge by becoming financial supporters. Join those who have already signed on and help make TBE a Bristol success story. Thank you, keep reading and keep spreading the word about TBE, Bristol’s own online community newspaper.