Note to readers: What's behind that paywall? (Why some posts are free and others not, and what you can do to crash through that barrier.)
The Chronicle covers everything in Croton, from profiles of our busy neighbors to cracks in those unsightly retaining walls. You are helping to make it happen.
It’s been an exciting time for The Croton Chronicle, and I hope for our readers as well. In the past month the number of subscribers, both free and paid, has shot up dramatically, and it’s clear that this publication is becoming the community newsletter it was meant to be.
This is all the more heartening because it’s happening at a time when local journalism is taking a dive all around the U.S. I am sure you have read some of the doom and gloom being spread around largely by, I am embarrassed to say, journalists. Hedge funds and large corporations are getting a lot of the blame, and I think in many cases for good reason. Investors and other speculators are picking the bones from the carcasses of once vibrant publications, both print and online, and journalists are being laid off by the thousands.
Some journalists, reluctant to give up on a profession they have devoted their lives to, are going solo, using platforms such as Substack—which also hosts The Croton Chronicle—to continue to serve their communities. (See here for the story of a columnist in Worcester, MA, who went that route and is now glad he did.)
But whether local journalism thrives or not can, sadly, depend a lot on the financial health of the community it is serving.
We in Croton, and in the Hudson Valley more widely, are lucky to have hung on to a number of local publications, some independent and some not, that provide local news and features to our community. The purpose of The Croton Chronicle is not to supplant or even compete with those outlets, especially not in the current crunch for local journalism.
I launched this newsletter for two main reasons, both of which reflect my personal love for this village and its community:
I felt that our village needed a publication that was laser focused on Croton, Croton, and nothing but Croton. On the rare occasions we have strayed slightly from that mission—for example, in our update on the decommissioning of the Indian Point nuclear power plant—there has been a clear Croton angle.
I wanted to pursue stories that other publications are not doing, especially investigative reporting about topics that Crotonites clearly want to know about but are not finding out about, for whatever reasons. While some of these stories have been about controversial issues, such as the village’s housing policy, others focus on Croton people who are doing important things but have never been the subject of profiles, such as our village historian or our Bird Commissioner.
That brings me to the point of this post, which is, Why are some articles free and some behind a paywall?
The answer is simple: We have pledged to put all stories about Croton people and what they are doing in front of the paywall, and make them free to all readers. So no one has to pay to read about the inner workings of our Sustainability Committee or a film about playwright Lorraine Hansberry (“A Raisin in the Sun”) produced by Croton-Harmon high school students.
On the other hand, investigative pieces, which often take weeks of reporting, talking to sources, filing Freedom of Information Law requests with the village, and other intensive journalistic methods, generally fall behind the paywall. That’s because they are expensive to produce, both in terms of staff time and other expenses, and we feel it is fair to ask readers to help pay for them.
Of course, the decision of what kind of subscription to take out is totally up to you. Readers can continue to enjoy and benefit from the Chronicle for free, no questions asked, and you will still get plenty of relevant content that way. On the other hand, you can do much more to support local journalism by subscribing. We’ve made it relatively painless—you can pay $5/month, which you will barely miss—or make a bigger commitment and plunk down $50 for a year’s subscription. (These prices are the lowest that Substack allows, rock bottom.)
And if you really want to show your commitment to local journalism, you can take out a lifetime Founders sub for only $200. Your life, my life, or the lifetime of the newsletter—may we all live long and prosper!
As I said above, we are relatively lucky here in the Hudson Valley that we have several publications to choose from. But we can’t take any of them for granted. If the nationwide experience is any guide, we can expect there to be attrition, and for news outlets we have read and loved for years to suddenly go under. We are not at all immune from that depressing scenario.
The Croton Chronicle is about Croton, pure and simple. It is edited and published by a journalist with 46 years of experience, who has taught journalism at NYU and other universities for many years, and who lives right in the heart of the village—and who is helped generously by a growing number of villagers who provide story ideas, serve as sources, and help with publicity.
If you are not already, please consider being part of that network by becoming a paid subscriber. All you have to do is click on this button.
Thank you,
Michael Balter
Editor/publisher
(Not ready to subscribe? Then click on this button to do your part in spreading the word.)