For Valentine’s Day, our heartfelt thanks to donors and advertisers
You’ve supported a rare and beautiful human connection that few towns get to enjoy anymore.
Dear Reader,
We are grateful to the donors and advertisers who contribute to our newspaper. You’ve supported a rare and beautiful human connection that few towns get to enjoy anymore.
You’ve literally put us all on the same page.
Through The Bridge, we all learn what is going on in Acton at the same time, whether you read the news online, in print, or through our social media channels. This shared understanding sparks dinner table and coffee shop conversations.
Some Bridge contributors have fond memories of sitting down with family to watch Walter Cronkite report the news. People were unified by a trusted information source, even if their opinions on current events differed. These donors, who want Concordians to enjoy that same sense of togetherness today, underwrite a significant amount of our non-profit’s expenses.
Access to trustworthy news is vital to our well-being and our democracy. Our educational and watchdog roles are why the press is considered a pillar of democracy and is afforded constitutional protections to report freely.
On the national level, readers are subjected to manufactured strife and disinformation campaigns. They see media outlets politically attacked as “fake news” to undermine their credibility. Readers have become siloed into news resources that confirm their biases — and social media feeds that often blur fact and fiction.
Encouragingly, studies show local news readership encourages voter turnout and bipartisan voting patterns — while lowering the temperature on political discourse.
George Washington University Professor Danny Hayes, co-author of “News Hole: The Demise of Local Journalism and Political Engagement,” told The Oxford Free Press that “polarization is a tough problem to solve,” but local news “seems to be one of the few things in the world that can bring people together rather than drive them apart.”
Creating community
What happens locally affects readers’ daily lives directly, and it’s where people can have the most sway.
We all share in our neighbors’ joys, challenges, and sorrows. We monitor how well our town government and school system run. We see Acton’s many dedicated volunteers shaping the town for the better. Together, we create community.
A shout-out to the postal carriers who hand-deliver our newspaper to you each week. Bridge Board President Alice Kaufman and I brought them breakfast last week to thank them for being our de facto circulation department.
Though we pay to have your newspaper delivered — the board set it up so every household and business receives The Bridge — it’s your carrier who makes sure it arrives at your place every Friday. They are truly connecting Acton, week after week, and we are grateful for their steadfastness.
Of course, good journalism costs money. At The Bridge, we are lucky that our marketing partners value the print advertising that helps support us.
But the dot-com revolution of the early 2000s decimated the traditional advertising-dominant model. News outlets cut costs to survive, disappointing readers, who canceled their subscriptions. Some outlets became more partisan to curry favor with segments of their audience.
The antidote to the erosion of local news is the non-profit business model that we have embraced, but it works only if readers become dedicated donors who provide most of the revenue we need to keep bringing you a high-quality, award-winning newspaper.
Congratulations on being part of our third anniversary of Keeping Acton Connected through The Bridge. We hope that one day, most households in Acton will contribute to helping this relationship thrive.
Please join and support us in creating community by visiting concordbridge.org/donate.
Kind regards,
Maile Hulihan
CEO, The Acton Bridge
