South West Durham News (SWDN), publisher of the Ferryhill & Chilton Chapter, the Shildon & District Town Crier, the Bishop Press and Spennymoor news, has reached its match funding target with an amazing single donation.
SWDN’s crowdfunding campaign is being supported by the Public Interest News Foundation (PINF), who have pledged to match all funding raised in June up to £2,000. And as funds continue to flow in through their crowdfunding campaign, which is set at a target of £4,000, the community interest company was astonished to receive a cheque in the post late last week for £2,000.
The cheque ensured that the publisher was guaranteed to receive it full match funding from PINF and came with the message, “I would love it if this helped you concentrate on the journalism without having to worry about the money.”
“We cannot thank our donor enough,” said Managing Editor, Archie MacKay. “To receive such an incredible show of support is a massive validation of everything we are trying to achieve. We know times are hard, which is why we are only asking people to contribute £2, or more if they can afford to, as every penny is valuable and helps us get closer to achieving everything we want for the communities we support.”
The crowdfunding campaign kicked off during Indie News Week at the beginning of the month with the slogan ‘No news is bad news’. The messaging communicates numerous things simultaneously: namely that local journalism is in crisis; that investigating and communicating news costs money and that without community-based journalism, more news deserts will start to appear. It asks, without journalists, who will hold power to account and how will communities stay informed of issues that affect them?
These are just some of the questions South West Durham News want to help answer in their communities, but can only do so if they are able to grow and hire the extra staff that will help them uncover the stories that matter.
Mr MacKay added: “As long as you have a local independent news source in your area, your community can stay informed – but sadly, far too many news providers aren’t able to cover their costs and have to shut down. Please support us today from as little as £2 on our Crowdfunder or by giving us a call. Help us to keep you in the know as no news is bad news for us all.”
Ferryhill & Chilton's local community newspaper.
