Week two of YachatsNews’ fundraising campaign: What does it cost to cover the news and why are we doing it?

By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews

This week I paid a bunch of bills for YachatsNews’ news gathering efforts in May.

These included checks to our payroll service, our web guy, three freelancers and mileage reimbursement for reporter Garret Jaros. There was $100 to file our 2022 nonprofit report with the IRS and $33 for ink for the small office printer we bought for $102.

It adds up fast. In fact, we’re forecasting YachatsNews’ expenses for all of 2022 will be $81,000 – everything from the reporter’s salary and health benefits, state and federal taxes, insurance, fees of all kinds, extra help from freelance writers to – yes – ink cartridges.

And what does that provide?

Just this week it includes a deep look into a $1 million grant that Lincoln County is using to try to coordinate plans and resources to help the homeless, a feature on the Seal Rock Garden Club days before its big summer plant sale, a look at the Class of 2023 at Waldport High School, to news about a $16.5 million housing project at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. There’s also a handful of small stories – “news briefs” in the business – letting you know about everything from money for septic tank replacement, to May rainfall, to the death of a prolific art collector in Waldport.

And that’s just part of one week.

YachatsNews publishes an average of 100 news stories a month, everything from one of those city council meetings to community events to the latest from Oregon Coast TODAY or the Oregon Legislature.

There’s a lot of talk in the news business and among academics about the decline of traditional news media – especially newspapers almost everywhere. This is helping create what are being called “news deserts” – usually rural communities where there are no news reporters or other media trying to keep track as accurately and objectively as possible of what’s going on from city council and fire board meetings to telling interesting or fun stories about people, businesses, organizations or events.

Locally, the newspaper in Newport went from publishing twice a week to just once a week and the paper in Lincoln City has just a part-time editor/reporter. A struggling county-wide radio station in Newport can’t find a news director.

It’s a national phenomenon.

Reporters at many Gannett-owned newspapers across the country went on strike for one or two days this week to protest continued cost-cutting measures at the nation’s largest newspaper chain. The Oregonian recently reported on the tragic decline of the Gannett-owned Eugene Register-Guard (which has no local editor, six reporters working remotely and is printed in Vancouver, Wash.) and efforts around Lane County to fill that void.

And that’s why I started YachatsNews more than four years ago – a public service project to try to provide some basic news coverage of the central Oregon coast.

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. The site is unable to provide 100 percent comprehensive coverage of south Lincoln County. It’s one reporter and one editor, with the help of some very capable freelancers and other news partners trying to bring you what we think – in a very traditional sense — are the top news and community stories of the week.

Over time, we try to seek a balance of what we cover. For every story about a contentious Yachats City Council meeting or a controversial fire board, there are a dozen other stories about community events, volunteers, the environment, and all kinds of other topics we hope are interesting or useful.

The challenge to me – and the community will help decide this – is if this effort is sustainable in the long term. Does south Lincoln County – from Tenmile to Yachats, Waldport and as far north as Newport — want regular, daily news in a digital format or will it go back to a situation where rumors, second- and third-hand observations and Facebook are the biggest sources of information.

Here’s a comment from one reader who donated last week: “Thank you so much for the news! It’s great to be able to cite YachatsNews when someone tells me gossip.”

Last year you said our efforts were worth supporting and during a one-month local fundraising campaign opened your checkbooks to the tune of $53,000 to help us hire a full-time reporter. Last week, we kicked off that one-month-a-year campaign again — boosted with an initial $10,000 in a “matching challenge” from two local readers.

All of this is to help finance and continue our work, including the expense of a full-time news reporter.

So far, readers have contributed $5,000 to this year’s campaign, bringing the total so far this month to $15,000. More support, we hope, is on the way.

You can help by contributing one of three ways:

• Write a check to YachatsNews and drop it in the mail to: Yachats News, P.O. Box 284, Yachats, Ore. 97498. For tax purposes, you will get a letter acknowledging your donation;
• Use the PayPal feature on the fundraising “thermometer” graphic with this article or via the “Donate” button of this website;
• Use the GoFundMe donation portal on the fundraising “thermometer” with this article.

Because we are a 501c3 nonprofit, any contributions are tax deductible.

If you have questions, please email me at YachatsNews@gmail.com or call me at 503-970-3867. I am happy to answer questions and share any nuances of the campaign, the transition, future plans, and operations the past 4½ years.

• Quinton Smith/editor