Hi Folks,
Sending this e-mail as a no-obligation request. I hope at least some of you will consider what I'm proposing here....
All of you are familiar with our online news site in Doddridge: _www.doddridgenews.com_ (http://www.doddridgenews.com/) This is an e-news site that was started as result of a volunteer, grass-roots effort by a guy named Monte, who lives in West Union. Many of you probably know him. For those that don't, Monte is one of the "transplants" from out of state who moved here to retire and enjoy life. He's a bit of a computer guru when it comes to internet writing, website development, etc. and does that type of work as a free lancer for supplemental income. After being here in Doddridge for awhile, he realized that we have limited resources for communication throughout the county.... no local TV or radio station focused on our county, and the weekly Herald, but otherwise, not a whole lot of attention from either the Parkersburg or Clarksburg news outlets.
So he started the Doddridge News site with ambitions of it being a community online news site where folks could find local and regional news of interest, as well as school events, community calendar, etc. It was also intended to be a "platform" where citizens could submit articles, op eds, blog, or whatever.
He has developed this site over the last two years to what it is today. He has quite a following on twitter, google circles, and other networking tools. In effect, his Doddridge News site gets watched by a lot of people including many in Charleston in the legislature and beyond.
All that being said, it is a project that requires at least an hour or two a day for Monte to keep the content fresh, and search out local and regional news to post on the site.It is also a valuable tool for us to have when we want to post our articles. For me, and my efforts with WV Host Farms, his news site gives me the opportunity to have him publish an article, op ed, Marcellus at Your Door, or whatever I have to contribute as part of my outreach efforts to educate an unsuspecting community about Marcellus drilling impacts.
For others, it's been a platform for articles about county issues, (Co. Commission, budget issues, videos of commission meetings, local event coverage, political news, covering elections, etc. )
Monte maintains this news site for us, but he also has to spend time making a living as well. He's a behind the scenes kind of person. He works from home doing internet content writing, website development, search engine optimization projects, etc., all of which is work that pays him as a freelancer.
The time he spends keeping up the Doddridge News site obviously takes him away from the income producing freelance work. While he has been hoping to pick up some advertisers, we all know that this is a county that gives no support to "outsiders" when it comes to business ventures....and especially when it comes to someone whose business venture is a newspaper that promotes open government, accountability, etc. A lot of the content he publishes does just that!
The thought occurred to me that if Monte had a "core group" of sponsors for his news site, he would be able to justify the hours he spends on it every day in keeping the content fresh for us.
He has a paypal donation button on the home page... underneath a graphic that says "buy the editor a cup of coffee." A means for him to try to raise some funds to compensate for his dedication and his effort in giving us this local county paper/platform to get our stories out that otherwise would go unreported.
Hopefully all of us would agree that an occasional $5 donation to Doddridge News site would be a small price to pay for that service. It's an important "platform" we need to maintain with our various outreach efforts (e.g. exposing drilling issues, county political shenanigans, wasteful county spending, etc. When he publishes something on his site, believe me people are taking notice down in Charleston and in the industry.
As example, each time I write a "Marcellus at Your Door" article, or he posts some other drilling news-related article like those contributed by Tom Bond, he tells me his "hit meter" on the administrator's page of the site registers sees an almost immediate couple hundred hits within just a few hours of posting these items. And also the DCAA stuff and co. commission reports, Tammy's videos, etc. He publishes, then "tweets" these things to his followers. (many of his twitter followers are WV legislators and industry folks, so they ARE watching us!)
Most important in all of this is the fact that when he publishes something for us, it creates a "hotlink" from which we can copy and paste onto e-mails, "share" and move it forward to others in our networks of concerned citizens. I put it up on the twitter for WV Host Farms, and on its fb page to move it forward and it goes all around other states that way who also share marcellus drilling concerns with me. This kind of following and momentum is growing as result. It's the one tool we have to counteract the millions and millions of dollars the industry spends on TV, radio, and newspaper ads. We don't have that financial luxury in getting our message out.
Originally, Monte was striving to keep his paper middle-of-the-road on some of these controversial issues facing our county... drilling, commission/budget issues, etc. Hard to do when he doesn't get contributing writers, save for a few of us who are opinionated and not necessarily unbiased. LOL
But seeing that our newest media venture in Doddridge appears to many to be less than "independent" in it's content, I have suggested to Monte that he shift his strategy for Doddridge News.com It will be more of a "watchdog" type paper. Somewhat like the state-wide WV Gazette with it's "sustained outrage" branch of that paper.
And he will focus on uncovering some of the shenanigans and controversial issues important to those of us here in Doddridge and surrounding counties.
I support him on this effort (have already clicked the paypal button to "buy the editor a cup of coffee" )..a couple of cups... . and hope some of you will do the same. Any donation amount is appreciated...$5, 10, $15, $20 ...whatever you think his site is worth to you. The goal is to muster up a group of regular core supporters who every month will click on the paypal to make a small donation to thank him for his efforts in giving us a community voice. I could gladly send out a monthly e-mail to folks reminding folks that Monte needs a cup of coffee. If of all the people I've sent this e-mail out to, we could count on 1 in 5 "buying him a cup of coffee" on the pay pal link, at least have some financial support to compensate for some of the many, many hours he puts into this online news site every month.
No obligation for any of you to respond, and your effort is anonymous to anyone else. And you don't need a paypal account either to donate, as the link goes to a form to fill in where you can just use a credit card to donate.
Am thinking that if 10 or 20 of us made it a habit to go to the pay pal button every month and click on it to "buy him a coffee" ... $5 ....or more if you are so inclined, he'd have enough "caffeine" to continue to spend the hours and hours he does on this news site each month to serve us.
Believe me, I know where he's coming from having been doing this WV Host Farms for the past year and almost as a full time job but being just a volunteer. If everyone across the country who ever looked at my website would have clicked on the paypal button, we'd have afforded a staff of folks to help with all the research, oversight, and postage for mailing info pkts to landowners, mileage expense for those of us who shuttled researchers around the county, etc., etc. Ha! We wouldn't need a WV DEP, since we'd be doing the job for them! But grass roots is never a well-funded effort!
So one cup of coffee at a time, I suppose!
Hope you all will consider this and not be offended by my solicitation to help out Monte in keeping Doddridge News site in existence.
Thanks!
Diane Pitcock, WV Host Farms