Last week, Mountain Xpress and Ponderwell presented their proposals for the Community Media Development Initiatives grant before the evaluation panel. We have included our full presentation and handout below. You can view Ponderwell’s presentation notes here.
Here is Web Manager Patrick Conant’s presentation:
Here are Publisher Jeff Fobes’ opening and closing remarks:
We share your inclination to get the whole story. For the past 25 years, Xpress has been committed to in-depth, balanced reporting about the greater Asheville area. We want everyone to have access to our stories. That’s a big part of why we've never charged for the paper or put up a paywall.
We’re pretty sure that you know journalism faces big challenges these days. Advertising no longer pays the whole cost. Media outlets around the country are asking their readers to chip in. Xpress needs help, too. We hope you’ll consider signing up to be a member of Xpress. For as little as $5 a month — the cost of a craft beer or kombucha — you can help keep local journalism strong. It only takes a moment.
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Neither group has the skills or experience to pull this off. I am calling the Council members to ask them to not fund this until a really qualified group can become involved. Having set one of these Community program “channels” up before I can also say the funds are too low for it to really succeed. Maybe that is the real intent.