By David Gordon, CVPost Board chair
The page you’re reading in the Chippewa Valley Post hasn’t changed much since we launched this online news platform nearly four years ago.
It’s time to make a few changes in its appearance, and we’ll start phasing those in fairly soon.
In the meantime, we’re announcing two other changes today. One is a new option for the community to help fund an expansion of our (really, your) coverage. The other offers an opportunity to help decide what should be covered.
If you return to the home page and look directly above the headline on this article, you’ll find a link to a form that authorizes a monthly deduction from either your checking or savings account, to support the CVPost. Many people have told us they would use this automatic way to support us, and this option is now available.
We urge you to consider using it if you’ve found the CVPost to be personally useful. We hope you’ll also use it if you think it’s simply a good idea to preserve a community publication that fills in some of the existing gaps in news about the Chippewa Valley and especially its nonprofit organizations.
It’s not “fake news” that gathering, writing and publishing information costs money. Our costs range from paying for a host website to keeping it operating properly, from providing security for it to gathering information and editing it for an online news format.
Most of our work so far has been done by volunteers, and those efforts have been inconsistent. We need to be able to put a few people on a part-time payroll, so the news and information we’re providing for you is available on a regular basis . . . one you can rely on.
Bottom line: we need everyone who has complimented us on the existence of the CVPost to step up and support it more than just verbally.
We’re also looking to recruit a couple of citizen journalists – people who will devote 10 or 12 hours a week to covering community groups and activities which are important to them and which should be important to the community.
If you’re interested in exploring what this would involve, please get in touch by email (cvpostwi@gmail.com) or phone (715-271-5736). We’re hoping to hear from you!