YachatsNews transitions to 501c3 nonprofit, hires full-time reporter, seeks donations and posts operating policies

 

Editorial Independence Policy, February 2023

We subscribe to standards of editorial independence adopted by the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Our organization retains full authority over editorial content to protect the best journalistic and business interests of our organization. We maintain a firewall between news coverage decisions and sources of all revenue. Acceptance of financial support does not constitute implied or actual endorsement of donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals and organizations for the general support of our activities, but our news judgments are made independently and not on the basis of donor support.

Our organization may consider donations to support the coverage of particular topics, but our organization maintains editorial control of the coverage. We will cede no right of review or influence of editorial content, nor of unauthorized distribution of editorial content.

Our organization will make public all donors who give a total of $5,000 or more per year. We will accept anonymous donations for general support only if it is clear that sufficient safeguards have been put into place that the expenditure of that donation is made independently by our organization and in compliance with INN’s Membership Standards.

Donor and financial transparency policy, February 2023

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization.

Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that operates as a public trust, we do not pay certain taxes. We may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.

Our news judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. As a news nonprofit, we avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

 

Corrections and updating online stories

YachatsNews corrects errors of fact when they are brought to our attention and verified by a source, the reporter or an editor.

Stories posted online will be fixed immediately after an error has been found and verified. This includes fixes of minor errors such as misspellings. As a story develops, we do not note updates unless there is a particular reason to note the addition of new information or other change.

Stories that contain a material error — an error that would significantly affect a reader’s understanding of a story — will have a correction appended as soon as the correction is approved by the editor.

To submit a correction to a story contact the reporter, appropriate editor or let us know at YachatsNews@gmail.com. Let us know what needs to be corrected, where the error was found and any other additional relevant information.

 

YachatsNews’ board

YachatsNews has established a governing board to advise it on operations and overall policies. It meets quarterly and does not have input on editorial content.

Board members were recruited from Lincoln County and Oregon and may change over time. As of December 2022 they are:

• Susan Woodruff, Waldport: Woodruff is a retired businesswoman who has been on the Waldport city council for 21 years. She is an active volunteer with several civic organizations, is a board member and treasurer of the Waldport Chamber of Commerce, and a member of Lincoln County’s budget committee.
• Tom Lauritzen, Yachats: Lauritzen had a 50-year accounting career in a variety of roles and assignments, including public accounting, restaurant equipment manufacturing, ship building, auto parts, grocery stores, brewing and consulting assignments for major retailers. A longtime city of Yachats finance consultant and volunteer, he is the board’s treasurer.
• Tiffany Sullivan, West Linn: Sullivan worked as an advertising executive at The Oregonian for 20 years where she handled the events category, helped create its sponsorship program and assisted with the production of custom publications. In 2017 she formed Blue Sprocket Brokerage, an agency that handles digital and print advertising, creative, and custom publications for YachatsNews and others.
• Catherine Trevison, Portland: Trevision is a writer, editor and researcher who has worked for four newspapers in the Midwest, South and West, including The Oregonian/OregonLive. She also volunteers with local nonprofits including Willamette Writers and Friends of Portland Community Gardens. She is the board secretary.
• Quinton Smith, Yachats: Smith founded YachatsNews in 2019 after a 40-year career as a reporter and editor for United Press International and three Oregon newspapers. He worked in various editing positions at The Oregonian from 1984 to 2008 where he led a reporting team that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. He is the board’s president and chair.

 

Dec. 2, 2022:

YachatsNews transitions to 501c3 nonprofit, hires full-time reporter, seeks donations

After four years as a privately-operated and financed community service project, YachatsNews has completed its transition to a nonprofit organization and hired its first full-time reporter.

YachatsNews has hired Kenneth Lipp, formerly of the Newport News-Times, as its main reporter. The local news website will continue to be edited and managed by its founder, Quinton Smith.

YachatsNews has also created a five-member board to advise and guide its policies, management and long-term sustainability.

Nonprofit news operations are gaining popularity in a fractured local, state and national media landscape. There are a handful in Oregon – operations in Ashland, Oakridge, Salem, and several based in Portland. A recent national study said 40 percent of local news websites in the United States are now nonprofit.

YachatsNews applied for 501c3 nonprofit status last February and the Internal Revenue Service granted that designation in October. During that interim, YachatsNews conducted a highly successful local “hire a reporter” fundraising effort that raised more than $58,000.

The nonprofit status allows it to receive tax deductible contributions and pursue operating grants from local, state and national foundations.

YachatsNews recently received a $10,000 grant from the Thompson Foundation, a private, non-profit Corvallis-based foundation that supports community health, education, historic preservation and well-being in Benton County and surrounding communities. The foundation also supports education for young people entering the forest industry.

Those contributions were enough to recruit and hire Lipp, who had been the associate editor of the News-Times. He started his new job Monday, Dec 12.

“Having a reporter working full-time on Lincoln County news will improve and expand the strong, local journalistic effort that YachatsNews has been providing for four years,” said Smith.

Smith will continue some reporting, but focus on managing Lipp and three freelancers who regularly contribute to YachatsNews, story selection from its various Oregon news partners, creating new partnerships and work on financial planning and long-term sustainability of the news operation.

Lipp has had a varied professional career starting with designing and implementing lighting for theater and live music, attending the University of Alabama-Birmingham, and beginning his reporting career during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. In 2012 he co-founded the news blog, The Philly Declaration, contributed to The Daily Beast, The Intercept, The Nation, Splinter and Philadelphia’s Spanish-language daily, Al Dia.

In 2018 Lipp went to work as a reporter at the Keith County News, a bi-weekly in Ogallala, Neb. He joined the Newport News-Times as a reporter in February 2020 and was promoted to associate editor four months later. At the News-Times he covered Lincoln County and city of Newport governments, politics, courts, crime and breaking news.

Lipp can be reached at his new email address: KenLipp@YachatsNews.com or his cell phone at 308-289-2597.

Approaching 4th anniversary

Smith created and self-funded YachatsNews as a community service project in January 2019 as a way of providing local news in what is commonly called a “news desert” – an area where traditional media no longer have reporters covering local governments, people, business, and the community.

Initially focused on the Yachats community, the past three years it has expanded news coverage, advertising and community service to Waldport and south Lincoln County, countywide issues, the ocean and forest environment, and statewide news.

It carries locally-produced news of city and county governments, special service districts, breaking news, entertainment, events, people, businesses, a civic calendar, letters to the editor, obituaries and police reports. Since its inception, there have been more than 3,750 stories posted to the site.

The site currently receives more than 100,000 unique page views a month.

But to continue, YachatsNews needed to hire a full-time reporter — and readers responded generously to finance that effort for the first year. That – and its new nonprofit status — also inspired the site’s new slogan: “Independent, nonprofit news. Free to all, funded by readers.”

This month, YachatsNews is again asking readers to consider an end-of-the-year tax deductible donation to help it build up financial reserves for 2023-24. Readers can send a check to: YachatsNews, P.O. Box 284, Yachats, Ore. 97498, or make a one-time contribution through this PayPal link.

YachatsNews currently offsets its expenses via occasional donations, from a small revenue stream from paid advertising, and from 30 readers who make monthly contributions ranging from $5 to $40 via PayPal.

YachatsNews’ board

YachatsNews has also established a governing board to advise it on operations and overall policies. It meets quarterly and does not have input on editorial content.

Board members were recruited from Lincoln County and Oregon and may change over time. They are:

• Susan Woodruff, Waldport: Woodruff is a retired businesswoman who has been on the Waldport city council for 21 years. She is an active volunteer with several civic organizations, is a board member and treasurer of the Waldport Chamber of Commerce, and a member of Lincoln County’s budget committee.
• Tom Lauritzen, Yachats: Lauritzen had a 50-year accounting career in a variety of roles and assignments, including public accounting, restaurant equipment manufacturing, ship building, auto parts, grocery stores, brewing and consulting assignments for major retailers. A longtime city of Yachats finance consultant and volunteer, he is the board’s treasurer.
• Tiffany Sullivan, West Linn: Sullivan worked as an advertising executive at The Oregonian for 20 years where she handled the events category, helped create its sponsorship program and assisted with the production of custom publications. In 2017 she formed Blue Sprocket Brokerage, an agency that handles digital and print advertising, creative, and custom publications for YachatsNews and others.
• Catherine Trevison, Portland: Trevision is a writer, editor and researcher who has worked for four newspapers in the Midwest, South and West, including The Oregonian/OregonLive. She also volunteers with local nonprofits including Willamette Writers and Friends of Portland Community Gardens. She is the board secretary.
• Quinton Smith, Yachats: Smith founded YachatsNews in 2019 after a 40-year career as a reporter and editor for United Press International and three Oregon newspapers. He worked in various editing positions at The Oregonian from 1984 to 2008 where he led a reporting team that won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News. He is the board’s president and chair.