Dear Armchair Lehigh Valley readers,
This month has been a busy one for our burgeoning publication. On Nov. 1, we launched our first-ever donation campaign and were blown away by the generosity of our subscribers.
We also wrapped up another election cycle – publishing three dozen stories on more than 20 local races. That included stories on donors funding key school board and judicial races. We even stayed up until 4 a.m. on election night to make sure we had the latest results and file our stories.
Now that we have a moment, we wanted to say thank you to all who have contributed to our donation appeal and read our coverage. We are grateful to have supporters like you who care about our mission and want to invest in the future of Armchair Lehigh Valley.
When we started this appeal, we did not anticipate such an overwhelming response from our readers. We easily exceeded our $2,000 goal within the first week and have since increased our goal to $5,000. The NewsMatch campaign will continue through Dec. 31, so all donations made through the end of the year will be tripled. That means if we reach our new goal, we will not only be able to meet our administrative costs but also hire trusted freelancers.
We started this newsletter with no financial resources or support – solely the decades of reporting experience and commitment to provide vital election news to our neighbors in the Lehigh Valley. In just two years, we have grown our email list to over 900 subscribers. During the week of the election, we achieved our highest traffic to date as readers viewed our stories more than 13,000 times.
These statistics are encouraging because they show there is a need for the type of journalism Armchair Lehigh Valley provides. Thanks to your support, we will be able to be more rigorous in our coverage of local elections.
If you have already contributed to the campaign, we hope you know how much your support means to us. We do not expect people to donate more than once, but we would appreciate it if you could share the link to our appeal with family or friends.
We hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
We know we are thankful to have subscribers like you,
Katherine Reinhard & Robert Orenstein,
Co-directors and co-founders of Armchair Lehigh Valley