This week’s YachatsNews’ stories shows why local reporting is important — and why more is needed

 

 

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

This week’s news report by YachatsNews provides a clear example of why Lincoln County needs a vibrant local news organization.

The question is if YachatsNews can help provide that – and why the 501c3 nonprofit is asking for your help this month to expand and improve its work.

Here’s some of the backstory on this week’s news:

• On Monday, Lincoln County district attorney Lanee Danforth sent an email to staff and law enforcement partners announcing her resignation June 21. That’s not a complete surprise, of course, because she dropped out of the May primary after a little more than three years into her four-year term. The biggest news in her announcement was that she had asked the Oregon Department of Justice to come in and help oversee and staff her department. That’s because by the end of the month four the six remaining deputy district attorneys in the office will have resigned and left. The office is budgeted for eight deputies. Now there will be two.
• For the past several weeks YachatsNews had been prodded to step outside of its usual area of coverage and look deeper into the May 15 killing of a tourist in Lincoln City by a man police called a transient. We finally did that – and the resulting story leads our coverage today. The beating death of 69-year-old Brad Cole of Milwaukie in a motel parking lot is tragic in every sense of the word. But court documents show that authorities were warned five months earlier by the suspect’s father that his son was severely mentally ill and had been hearing voices telling him to kill someone.

No other media in Lincoln County is reporting this news or developments.

Not all news each week is so dramatic, of course.

This week there is a story on how county commissioners, the sheriff and the cities of Waldport and Yachats are trying to work out an agreement – after a month of dustups – on expanding deputy patrols in south county. But it’s a story that surfaced only after we attended council meetings in Yachats and Waldport and went deeper into the issue.

There are also “good news” stories about how a Yachats housing developer is finishing an affordable rental project in Florence with plans for two more, our monthly rainfall report (you’d be surprised how much interest there is in precipitation!), how a crabber helped find a new octopus for display at the Hatfield Marine Science Center, and a story setting up a state agency’s coastal meetings on a federal wind energy plans – and how you can attend or comment.

The point is, that for every “important” news story that YachatsNews publishes, there are usually three to five others on community events (everything from music festivals to crab feeds to Pride celebrations), routine meeting stories, general news of interest, and our special history or “5 Questions” features (which this week involve “Tillie” the whale and kids from Eddyville Charter School at a national convention).

As I have stated before, stories we do are not universally loved. But we try to be as accurate as humanly possible, provide context when it is needed, and quickly correct mistakes when they are pointed out. Over time, we try to balance what we publish with the ultimate goal of improving civic engagement by providing local information.

The idea is that you determine what’s important to read — and our aim is to provide a smorgasbord of stories and information to choose from.

For example, next week we’ll have stories on how locals are working to weigh in on changes to the Northwest Forest Plan and how it might affect the Siuslaw National Forest, on declining whale entanglements in fishing gear, and the big Beachcomber Days celebration in Waldport.

Lincoln County residents are not getting this kind of news coverage in other local media. Other media in the county rely on re-printing news releases directly from organizations or local government agencies without additional reporting and rarely take the time to attend meetings of your local governments because their corporate owners have cut back operations so deeply.

That means they don’t have the sources to see a district attorney’s emailed resignation the day after it is sent. They do not check court records – it costs money and takes time to do that – to see that a judge has sent an accused murderer to the Oregon State Hospital for treatment months after warnings he might kill someone.

A goal of more and better

As I said last week to kick off our June fundraising campaign, our goal in 2024 is to do more and better. This comes as other Oregon news organizations revealed troubling news this week about their financial health and futures.

YachatsNews wants to hire a second full-time reporter by late summer to be based in Newport and cover Lincoln County and Newport governments, Lincoln County schools and education, housing/homeless issues and the best stories of the week in that area.

But that will take more money, so this month we are seeking $100,000 to help pay that reporter’s salary, benefits and expenses and cover our other operating expenses. That is a substantial financial leap for YachatsNews — an almost doubling of our yearly expenses.

YachatsNews has already received $10,000 from the Oregon Community Foundation and $5,000 a year for three years from the Roundhouse Foundation to support this particular effort.

In addition, a local donor and his employer are “challenging” readers and supporters by offering a total of $20,000 in matching contributions. Once YachatsNews’ fundraising efforts hit $25,000 the donor will contribute $5,000 — then $5,000 more each time we hit the $50,000, $75,000 and $95,000 marks.

So, here’s how you can financially support YachatsNews with whatever you can contribute:

• Write a check and drop it into the mail to YachatsNews, P.O Box 284, Yachats, Ore., 97498;
• Use the “Donate” button on the website to make a one-time contribution through PayPal;
• Paypal also has a feature where you set up an automatic monthly contribution – 45 people do that now ranging from $5 to $25 a month. It is a great stabilizer for our monthly operations and much appreciated;
• Advertise your business or organization on the site. Not only will you gain the additional exposure that 130,000 page views a month can bring, but you will be helping sustain this operation. Here is a link to rates and how to get that process started.

YachatsNews is a 501c3 nonprofit so state and federal governments recognize your donation as a charitable tax deduction.

If you have questions during this one-month fundraising campaign, please reach out to me by email at YachatsNews@gmail.com or just pick up the phone and call me at 503-970-3867.

YachatsNews, its staff, freelancers, board – and thousands of readers – appreciate your support.

• Quinton Smith/editor