Our first members-only open house, held Dec. 7, was a much friendlier, less punkish gathering. We even let the dozen or so readers who dropped by come inside, pampered them with pizza from Pizza Leila and local beer, and had a good time learning what they like about the paper. We talked about banned books and expensive housing and covering the arts and music scene. Some came to pitch stories, and a candidate showed up with a petition for us to sign to get her on the ballot. We listened. We signed. All came to say thanks for the work we do covering the overlooked corners of Dallas.
To them, we say, "No, thank you."
Putting out a free newspaper day in and day out is a pricey business, especially in a media environment in which local news struggles to find an audience, the advertising market is atomized and readers are deluged with information — good, bad and outright false. Sorting that out is a large part of what we do, and it's good to hear that people find that valuable.
Speaking of valuable: While the Observer plans to remain free forever, we need reader support to keep us that way. That's why we introduced a membership program four years ago. It's now under the eye of our first membership manager, Lily Black, whose job it is to encourage more readers who value local news to contribute to our work. Our job is to make sure our work has value, and conversations with our readers help ensure we're hitting that target, as does your financial support.
Want to attend a future members-only event? Give any amount to join our membership community and help us meet our December goal of raising $2,000.
