By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
By most every type of measure, YachatsNews did well in 2023. Our goal for 2024 is to try to do more and better.
It’s been five years since I launched YachatsNews as a personal community service project to provide local news to south Lincoln County. YachatsNews transitioned to a 501c3 nonprofit in October 2022 to order to raise money to hire a full-time reporter and continue its operations.
As YachatsNews enters its fifth year, it is appropriate to report to readers and supporters what we did in 2023 and what the plans are for this year. So here goes.
The who
YachatsNews has one full-time reporter, Garret Jaros, an Oregon native who joined us last May from Colorado. We also rely on freelance writers, including Cheryl Romano of Yachats, Dana Tims of Portland and more recently, Kathleen O’Connor of Waldport who does the “5 Questions and a Secret” feature twice a month. Occasionally we hire other freelancers to do specific stories for us. As editor, I edit the stories and place them on the site, write the occasional story, and try to keep up with what seems like too much administrative work.
The partnerships
In 2023 we started a content sharing agreement with Oregon Coast TODAY to provide weekly entertainment stories, which we believe has proven very helpful to readers. More recently we partnered with the Lincoln County Historical Society to help provide bi-monthly history snapshots. We have ongoing partnerships with Oregon Capital Chronicle, KLCC News, Oregon Public Broadcasting, Oregon ArtsWatch and the Lund Report, among others.
The metrics
We posted 1,127 stories to the site in 2023; an average of 93 a month. Readership is measured in “pageviews.” YachatsNews had 1.65 million pageviews in 2023, averaging 135,000 pageviews a month. That is up from an average of 120,000 in 2022 and a dramatic increase from just 15,000 a month our first year. (Note: some stories that “go viral” can lead to large increases in pageviews. Three recent stories, for example, have pushed our current monthly pageviews to more than 240,000.)
The money
We conducted a second successful local fundraising campaign last June and a smaller end-of-the-year effort in December. We also receive regular small monthly contributions from 46 individuals – a shout out and thank you to them! — and were awarded grants from four Oregon foundations. All this means YachatsNews is in good financial shape to support its current operations with a bit of savings as a reserve.
Here is a breakdown (in round numbers) for 2023:
- Individual donations: $68,000; foundation grants: $38,575; net advertising revenue: $9,300; other miscellaneous income: $5,300 for total 2023 income of $121,175.
- Expenses: $91,000. This includes dozens of items — everything from payroll, insurance policies, freelance pay, fees, subscriptions, supplies, web and bookkeeping services.
Our formal IRS Form 990 financial statement will be posted on various charitable organization websites by mid-May.
A survey, tweaks and changes
In December, YachatsNews sent an online questionnaire to the more than 2,000 readers who signed up for our weekly email blast, asking them for feedback on a number of topics. More than 300 responded. We were told:
- The current website was just fine to navigate. (I was thinking of tinkering/changing it some, but will drop that impulse for now.)
- News of local government was the top priority for the great majority of those who responded;
- There were several requests to make letters to the editor more prominent (we did) and to do more on local history (we have);
- A large majority also said they would be willing to make small monthly contributions via PayPal to support our operation. If you are so inclined – as mentioned above, 46 readers currently do this — please go to this link to sign up to donate. It is a great help for monthly operations.
- This week we started sending out email blasts early Wednesday and early Friday highlighting newly posted stories to people who have signed up for that service. (Go here if you want to get them.) This had previously been done just on Fridays – resulting in the impression to many folks that we “published” only on Fridays. In fact, YachatsNews is a 24/7 online website that is available to readers any time of the day and any day of the week. This is another attempt to help dispel that impression.
This year
As I said at the top of this report, YachatsNews would like to do more and better in 2024, especially as other media in Lincoln County change owners, go out of business, or shrink their efforts.
To that end, we are seeking more substantial foundation grants this spring to help fund the hiring of a second full-time reporter. This reporter would be based in Newport and cover Lincoln County government, schools/education, social services, housing and homeless issues, and any breaking news or other news of widespread interest from there.
This would also require greater financial support from Newport-area readers and businesses.
This effort would involve a substantial financial leap for YachatsNews, almost doubling our expenses. It remains to be seen if foundations will help fund this project, or if the Newport community sees this as an important effort to support. I and the other members of YachatsNews’ board believe it is.
As I have stated before, stories we do are not universally loved. But we try to provide a snapshot of the community each week, be as accurate as humanly possible, provide context when it is needed, and quickly correct mistakes when they are pointed out.
That’s all for now. YachatsNews had a strong 2023 with continued growth. We’d just like to be able to do more in 2024. Please contact me by email or phone if you would like to further discuss anything in this report.
I will end with a reminder of our mission statement, which is: To provide locally reported, fair, unbiased straightforward news of Lincoln County, its communities, governments, people, community organizations, businesses, and the natural environment with an emphasis on good government, transparency, community involvement, civic participation and engagement. We are an independent, non-profit news service. Free to all, funded by readers.
Thank you for reading and for your support.
— Quinton Smith/editor & board chair
As stated before, you do such a fantastic job for us in the community. Thank you.
So glad to see the support for this publication that has exploded since its beginning.
So glad you are here and keeping us from becoming a news desert! I hope the second reporter happens, that would be wonderful. I rely on this to know what is happening here, and I repost you often.