By David Gordon, associate editor
We’ve begun a transition phase at the CVPost, with several new writers coming aboard and our founding editor, Bob Brown, stepping away for at least the immediate future.
Bob has put in an immense amount of time and energy in guiding the CVPost’s “soft launch” from early February through July. He’s recruited community journalists, edited their material, written some of his own, and learned more than he ever expected about managing a website. Jamie Paige has been a tremendous help in regard to the website, despite being based now in the Los Angeles area.
Unfortunately, we haven’t yet fully developed the revenue streams necessary to move from the “soft launch” phase to full-scale operations. At this point, we simply can’t afford to employ Bob on the half-time basis that he wants to work and that, frankly, the editor’s position really requires if it’s going to be done right.
Nonetheless, we will continue our efforts to grow both the website and community support for it – to “build the ship as we’re sailing it,” as someone described our efforts back in February. We’ll do this with the continuing help of volunteers along with a Board that believes in the value of what we’re doing. If you’d like to help in any way, please get in touch at cvpostwi@gmail.com.
Aside from funding, our biggest current needs are (1) finding someone locally to help us improve and expand our website, and (2) recruiting more local community journalists to report and write for us. If you can help in either (or both!) of these areas, do let us know. And if you know of others who might be interested, please put us in touch with them.
We’re also looking for additional writers for our “Commentary” section, where we’d like to promote civil discussion of relevant issues and events on which reasonable people can and will differ. Our only requirements for that section are that the tone must be civil, the topic must be relevant (or of considerable interest) to Chippewa Valley residents, and the writers cannot be anonymous.
On the plus side of things, we’ve received considerable community support in the nearly seven months since our “soft launch.” This includes a major donation from the Mahmoud Taman Foundation, a local charitable organization which numbers among its purposes the support of projects and grassroots efforts that promote interfaith and civic causes. (Even before our launch, two grants from the Immanuel Lutheran Trust Fund helped support our earliest efforts.)
We’ve also gotten important in-kind support from Wisconsin Public Radio, Attorney John Hibbard and Lee Heike and his creative crew at Hookd Promotions. Most important, we continue to increase our public membership support, albeit gradually. If you think that the CVPost can play an important role in informing and engaging the community but are not yet one of our members, we encourage you to go to www.cvpost.org and click on the “Give Now” icon.
I’ve held the title of associate editor since our February launch, so I guess it falls to me to pick up as many of the editorial responsibilities as possible in the immediate future. If you have ideas for stories we should be covering, or feedback about the website, or questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. And do visit the website regularly and help us spread the word that it’s there.
We’re only as strong as your support for us and as useful as you help us be. With your continued interest and assistance, we’ll renew our efforts to build toward a full-scale news, information and opinion operation to serve the Chippewa Valley.