The thing is, none of our overlords have ever disclosed either operating costs or gross revenue regarding the board. We can guess that we’re profitable or not, costing a lot or a little, but we have no way of knowing.
I would hope that, of all possible entities, an NPR affiliate would be willing to be a little more transparent and a little more willing to explore crowdsourcing and direct donations towards concrete goals.
I suspect (maybe with foolhardy naivete) that we posters could pretty easily cover yearly costs given the means and motive. Look at how much we raised for TubaDiva and Colibri.
I’m personally much more likely to kick in if I know exactly what we’re reaching for. If we had a donation drive with a goal of $________, and if I knew that reaching that goal meant all costs covered for a year and an ad-free experience for all users, I’d chip in for sure.
I agree with this and maybe if we do come to their attention, they’ll structure a pledge drive like this. But I wouldn’t count on it happening in 2022. But I also don’t think we’ll be disappeared in 2022.
I’d be happy with that. No attention needed as far as I’m concerned.
Just in case we need to know, where do you and @Dallas_Jones live, exactly? After all, we will need someone to blame if things go south.
What kind of hope? Like bigshots talking about it?
(bolding mine) This would be a big plus. As you say, nobody has ever given us a real life number to shoot for. The last I understood, we had surpassed Discourse’s $1000 month for views so we were in the call us and we’ll talk about it zone. No idea how much more than $1000 or if we are still at that rate.
Yes, although I don’t think we will or should lose the ads. They are some revenue and people that want to avoid them can do so easily. Sucks a bit for some people who read from work computers, but I just don’t see them going away.
I’m not really worried about short term either. There will be a lot of other stuff until someone notices us.
It doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that even at our worst, the pay to post era, the board was still worth keeping around. I think we are way better off now.
The Tampa Bay Times has only had that name since 2012. It was previously called the St. Petersburg Times since 1898.
The majority of the SPT stock was willed to a non-profit owner in 1978 when they then-owner died, but I see no indication the paper itself became a non-profit.
I was also interested to learn that the newspaper founded PolitiFact.com.
Just an anecdote to follow up on the nonprofit posts. The Deseret News apparently went 501(c) in 2019. In the last few months it’s been showing up in my Google news feed a few times a month, which it never had before. I don’t know if that’s because of increased Google ratings by them or if I just see more now because I’ve clicked on a few.
NW Oregon, beautiful place, you should visit it sometime. Far, far from Chicago which I still regard as the arm pit of the mid west. I will say that my post in the earlier thread was not timely. The SDMB will see another spring, I do not know how many more springs it will see, but none of us know when our last spring will come.
WaPo has an article about non-profit news agencies. They mention the Sun Times, but it’s mainly about a guy in Texas who made them work. This is a gift link:
The article really makes it sound good, if it’s true that this is about growth, not contraction and they are looking to hire 50 people rather than firing staff. While I wasn’t really worried about the SDMB being shut down any time soon, this article gives cause for optimism.
Did anyone hear Chicago Public Media’s Matt Moog and his very moving speech?
“We are now the proud owners of a highly respected purveyor of news and opinion… The Straight Dope Message Boards! And… oh, I’m being told… there’s a newspaper involved, too, so… good for us, I guess!”
We have $30 million US dolars which got from overlyinflated contact with Nigerian National Oil Co. We are meaning to beg your assistance in deposit this monies in your account. You’re commission will be 10% of all monies.
Pleese keep secret, use only fax number below to contact. Many government men involved. Contacy me immediately.