We need your help. As the News Review approaches its 88th anniversary as a small independent newspaper, we are facing unprecedented challenges even as our mission to deliver independent news for Greenbelt is more important than ever. With the disappearance of many other news sources, we have expanded our coverage into areas that we traditionally left to larger papers.
We’ve offered you important coverage of county schools and the school board, the fire department, the maglev, FBI Headquarters proposals, ICE and immigration news and the recent turmoil over federal workforce reductions and the impact on Greenbelt. We’ve filed Public Information Act requests as we follow actions and expenditures of public bodies and officials, holding them accountable to transparency and public interest. We’ve participated in community partnerships, news panels and more. And this fall, for the first time, we will co-host a forum for city council candidates.
For much of our history, we put out the paper on a shoestring. However, our operating costs have increased and our processes have changed over the last 20 years or so in ways that make this very difficult. We had to hire several skilled employees to do the essential work of preparing the files for the printer, work that must be done at a set time every week without fail or there’s no paper that week ‒ and that’s not an option.
Eventually, we also needed to hire a part-time managing editor, which again increased our cost but improved our journalism. With our expanded reporting, with so many more complex stories to cover, this role has also expanded, as evidenced by the depth and liveliness of the paper.
We now print in color and can print more photos, which were few and far between in the era of hot-type press and only black ink. Our readers love the photos, sending us their shots of events, people, animals and plants in Greenbelt and of their journeys around the world with the News Review. Lots of photos make for livelier, more interesting papers, but also bigger, more costly papers.
Throughout our history, we have funded our operations through the sale of advertising. But if we have more copy that “has to run this week” than will fit in the number of pages we can pay for, we will often choose to add more pages, again increasing our costs.
We have taken steps to try to regain our self-sufficiency, such as increasing our advertising rates and applying for grants, including one that will help us try out ways to reach potential new advertisers. While we have been surviving due to reserves that we accumulated over the years, we cannot keep drawing them down. (In fiscal year 2024, despite a generous ARPA grant to fund the paper’s new website, we still lost $6,459.)
So, here we are, hat in hand, asking our readers for their financial support. We offer several ways to make a contribution. Visit our website and click on Help Us on the home page and Contribute on the next page. You can also put cash or checks (made out to Greenbelt News Review) through our mail slots at the News Review office in the Community Center or the dropbox in the Co-op Supermarket or mail checks to Greenbelt News Review, 15 Crescent Road, Suite 100, Greenbelt, MD 20770. Because we are not a 501(c)(3) organization, but a workers cooperative, contributions to us are not tax deductible.
We are offering small gifts as “thank yous” to contributing readers and to enable you to proudly display your support: car magnets for a $10 donation, your choice of a coffee mug or cotton tote bag for $52 contributions, or all three for $120. Visit us at Information Day during the Labor Day Festival to see some samples.
Another way to show your support is to take out an ad expressing appreciation for the paper or recognizing someone’s birthday or anniversary. Don’t wait for Valentine’s Love Notes. We’ll recognize our contributors in our late November anniversary issue. And do patronize our advertisers and let them know you’re pleased to support businesses that support the News Review.
We’ve produced a weekly paper, free of charge to Greenbelt every week since November 1937 and with your support we can continue to bring great journalism to Greenbelt. We appreciate your support and look forward to continuing to provide the best news coverage we can to you, our readers.
