by Michael Balter, Chronicle Editor/Publisher
If you receive this message from The Croton Chronicle, it means you are one of more than a thousand email subscribers who is not currently paying for their subs. I am not trying to guilt trip you here (not much anyway), just stating a fact. But it’s a fact that I need you to consider changing, because the future of fully independent journalism in the Croton community is on the line.
Here are the numbers as of today: Out of a total of 1,433 direct email subscribers, 350 are paying for their subs, either $50/year (about 3/4) or $5/month (about 1/4.) You can do the math and see that 1,081 subscribers are getting this publication and all it does for free.
The news is not all bad: About 24% of all subscribers are paying for their subscriptions, which—for a Substack publication that does not force people to pay for all of its content—is actually pretty good. But that percentage has not changed in more than a year. On the other hand, total subscriber numbers continue to climb steadily, and the very important annual renewal rate is more than 90%, an enviable figure for any publication, including wealthy legacy media.
Substack publications are fully supported by reader subscriptions. The Chronicle does not accept advertising, and Substack does not sell subscriber lists—nor does this publication. As an independent publisher, I own the email list and do not share it with anyone, thus fully guaranteeing reader privacy. The Substack platform makes its money by taking 10% of the gross subscription income, and the Stripe company takes an additional 3-4% for processing credit card payments. That means that the Chronicle keeps around 86-87% of what you give it.
I don’t complain about these fees, however, because Substack provides a publishing platform and a Web interface, sends out each article to the entire email subscriber list, handles new subscriptions and processes cancellations, etc., while Stripe does all the financial stuff. I would not want to deal with any of this myself, and neither do the 50,000+ Substack publishers and writers (which include many well known authors who have gravitated over to this platform to reach millions of readers.)
Substack is used increasingly to publish local news media—in many ways it is helping to keep local journalism alive across the country—and most publishers bend over backwards to provide at least some free content to the communities they serve. The Chronicle has done that as well. At the moment, our only paywalled content is the Saturday Croton Week in Review, which we try to make worth paying for by providing value added commentary and perspectives on the week’s news and events.
When I first started the Chronicle more than two years ago, I was told by some old-timers in the village that no one would pay for it. I never believed that, because many in our community pay for other local publications which are distributed strictly on a paying basis. I also did not believe it because I knew that the Chronicle would fill an important gap with its hyper-local focus on the village of Croton-on-Hudson and the Croton-Harmon school district, its in-depth investigative reporting, its laser focus on Croton people and Croton events, and its independence from advertisers, political and social cliques, and other interest groups.
Although not everyone likes everything we publish, I think the Chronicle is a proven product, and that the large number of subscribers (paid and unpaid) the publication has earned demonstrates its value to the community. Indeed, we are told almost every day by subscribers that it would be a great loss for the community if the Chronicle stopped publishing.
A major reason is that the Chronicle’s reporting, more than that of any other publication serving the Croton community, reflects the wide diversity of views in the village and school district. On top of that, we do the most in-depth coverage of pretty much everything that goes on here, whether it be election campaigns (we interviewed every candidate in the recent village elections and published those interviews in full); political controversies (the Chronicle cut its teeth on the debates over housing policy); Board of Trustee and school board meetings; cultural and historical events (see our detailed story yesterday on the research by local historians into the Benedict Arnold-Major André conspiracy, or our light-hearted report on the party at The Grand for the New Croton Review); local criminal and civil cases that affect our community; and so much more.
All of that reporting takes a lot of daily hard work, and I greatly appreciate the steady stream of positive feedback the Chronicle gets for doing it.
On the other hand, the Chronicle sometimes publishes stories that not everyone likes, for example local officials whose conduct comes under media scrutiny. There are some in our community who would be thrilled if we stopped publishing, and who have, in fact, done everything they could to try to discredit or suppress this independent media outlet. Those who have tried can’t stand a media outlet that is fully independent and that they have no control over. Obviously, as the growing subscriber numbers demonstrate, they have failed.
On the Chronicle’s second anniversary, October 29, I wrote a personal Letter From the Editor in which I discussed the importance of local journalism, why readers should support it, and how doing so was essential to guaranteeing both its independence and its continuing existence.
A number of times before that, I made similar pleas to readers who were getting the Chronicle for free to pitch in and help support it. On each occasion, a small number of free subscribers updated to paid, but not enough.
So now it’s crunch time. The current financial base of the Chronicle is not sustainable. While it may seem that the hard work of journalists can be obtained for free or at a very discounted cost, it is not really true, or should not be. Also, we would like to be able to pay our many contributors at least a modest fee for their work, which we cannot do now. I am no longer willing to ask them to work for free. The Chronicle has really been a soft touch, but that cannot continue.
So here is what will be happening. Beginning January 1, more Chronicle articles will be going behind the paywall.
While we will continue to make many articles free—especially Guest Editorials, reports on community events, profiles, announcements, and other items that we cannot in good conscience as a community publication make people pay for—many hard news stories and investigative pieces will be going behind the paywall. The justification for this is clear: These are the stories that take the most work and effort, and we can no longer give them away for free.
The Chronicle doesn’t make much money, and I personally make very little, given all the time I put into it each day, the expenses associated with running it, and the many years of experience as a journalist I bring to this enterprise. But it is not a volunteer operation, not can it be.
We need readers to step up and support the journalism that we know members of this community are benefitting from. We don’t need to make a list of things that Crotonites would not know, in many cases not have any idea about, were it not for the Chronicle’s hard work and dogged reporting. You, the reader, are fully aware of it.
It may sound like we are driving a hard bargain, but not really. In fact, we will offer current free subscribers a bargain if they upgrade to a paid sub soon: We have lowered the annual price for upgrades from $50/year to $39/year, and will continue to make that offer until at least January 15. (Monthly subs remain at $5, because that is the lowest price Substack will allow.)
So please click on the “Subscribe” button above or below to get started taking advantage of this special offer. It only takes a few clicks. And while you are at it, think about giving someone else a gift subscription for the holidays.
Support local journalism, and whatever you do, don’t take it for granted. As you know local media is seriously threatened in the United States and many publications have gone under in recent years.
But don’t do this for us. Do it for yourself, and your right to know—your need to know.
Thank you.
Michael Balter has been a working journalist for nearly 48 years. He began his career as a local reporter in Los Angeles, then moved to France where he was the Paris Correspondent for Science magazine for 25 years. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, the International Herald Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian, Discover, Scientific American, Audubon, Bon Appetit, Islands, Travel & Leisure, National Geographic, and dozens of other publications. He taught journalism at New York University (six years) as well as at Boston University and City College of New York (one year each.)
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