By Robert Perea
From the day I started the Fernley Reporter online in 2016, it has been the most satisfying endeavor of my writing career. With only one exception.
Despite people in the news industry telling me it was the only way to make it, I resisted all of the advice I had been given to make it a subscription site, but I wanted to build as much web traffic as possible in order to maximize the advertising potential of the site. The problem is that sales isn’t part of my personality, and I never was able to sell many ads. I wouldn’t hire me to sell Sno-Cones in Arizona in summertime.
In hindsight, because I wasn’t successful in sales, not putting the site behind a paywall from the beginning was the worst decision I’ve ever made. However, in the long run it might turn out to be the best, because although I continually refused to give up even when I was only able to devote a day or two a week to the site, if I had tried to sell subscriptions and been unsuccessful, there’s no doubt I would have pulled the plug.
So now here we are, with a paywall that went live on the site Tuesday morning. That is a decision that pained me as soon as I realized it was going to be a necessity.
As an avid and voracious reader myself, I know exactly what I’m asking for when I ask you to consider subscribing, whether it’s a print or a digital plan. I follow a whole bunch of writers at various newspapers, magazines, Substacks and independent websites, and I can’t afford to subscribe to everyone I’d like to read. My main criterion for deciding which ones to subscribe to is whether or not I can get that same information somewhere else.
The only reason I feel comfortable asking anyone to even consider a subscription to the Fernley Reporter is that I’m confident that we are providing information you can’t get anywhere else. Sure, there are occasional stories that Reno or other regional media reaches out to Fernley for, but even when they do, there are so many other things that nobody else is covering. Sure, you might have read someone’s Facebook post about last week’s resignation of City Manager Ben Marchant, but there was only one place to turn if you wanted to read what happened without having to wade through speculation, conjecture and innuendo. Every week, the newspaper is full of stories that not a single reporter anywhere else is covering.
Part of what I love about covering community news is the direct connection I have with readers. People who recognize me stop me all the time to ask me questions or give me their opinions about things that are happening in Fernley. I’m not some faceless reporter that only a few dozen people out of a city of hundreds of thousands know, or that blows into town, writes about something sensational, then disappears. If I get something wrong, I have to face those same people again, and again, and again.
The bottom line is that as the editor of the Fernley Reporter, I work for you. Thanks to Rachel Dahl and Kerry Lyman, and our other contributors, I’m not doing it all by myself like I was when there was only the website, but I hope that you find value in the work we’re doing. I have hopes that with more resources we can do even more things.
If you are already subscribing, I’m grateful for your support, and if you haven’t yet, I hope you will join us and become a part of this local, community newspaper covering all the things that Fernley cares about. As always, send us your letters, your ideas, and story tips.
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