A Note From the Editor: What Changed This Week

Written by Gus Halloran

DALLIN. I don't like writing about the business side of this paper in the paper itself, but readers deserve to know when something changes, so here it is. When we launched this online edition, part of what made "free to read, every issue" possible was a local backer who asked to stay unnamed, and who I agreed to keep unnamed, because that's a reasonable thing for a donor to ask. This week, that backer withdrew their support, effective immediately.

I'll let readers do their own math on timing. This came three days after we ran Cynthia Hargrove's piece on Melanie Dyson, a piece Dyson's camp asked us directly not to run, and which we ran anyway, because I didn't think a request like that was one this paper should honor. I stand by that decision today exactly as much as I stood by it the day I made it. I'm not going to print an accusation I can't back up with more than timing, and I won't pretend the timing isn't what it is, either.

What this means practically: the free-to-everyone model was always going to need more behind it eventually, and that day is arriving sooner than planned. This Halloween issue stays free, in full, as promised. What happens after it, I don't have locked down yet. I'd rather take the time to get it right than hand you a plan I have to walk back in a month. If you've been asking how to help keep this paper running, write in. That's the list I'm building from, and you'll hear it from me first.

This paper isn't for sale, in either direction. That was true before this week, and it's true after it.