Big plans ahead for Crux

A letter from Crux managing editor Peter Newport.

Dear Crux reader,

We do our best to produce great local journalism and not to share our challenges with you. We know it’s tough for everyone at the moment.

But we have some exciting plans for the future that depend on us growing and doing our job at a sustainable scale. Our work is difficult as holding power to account is both complex and expensive.

We’d like to grow our entire spectrum of local news coverage. More celebration of success, more profiling of local businesses, more partnerships and more investigative journalism.

We know from our regular reader surveys that it is our investigations of council spending and transparency that you value very highly, along with supporting readers who run into problems with organisations that fail to behave fairly.

Thankfully we have made a big difference already and want to carry on that work without going behind any kind of paywall. Strong journalism should be free to everyone in the community as should our celebration of local success.

Currently only a small percentage of our readers support us financially. To these people we are very grateful. Also, to our advertisers we offer our heartfelt thanks.

But we need more of you to come on board with whatever you can afford. We are producing more content as a demonstration of our commitment to the community – podcasts, daily newsletters, puzzles are just some recent examples.

It’s no secret that journalism in New Zealand is going through an extremely challenging time. But it’s not a level playing field.

Legacy print media still benefits from outdated legislation that forces councils to advertise and publish public notices in newspapers – but not digital platforms. The Dunedin City Council spends around $650,000 a year on print advertising with the Otago Daily Times with the QLDC spending over $500,000 a year on advertising, mainly in print. These are huge sums that in effect can fund entire newsrooms.

And yet spiralling print costs, changes in audience behaviour plus the contemporary need for fast, fresh news and information all point to a digital future.

It’s a fact that outdated legislation, such as forcing councils to rely on printed newspapers, can take a long time to change. Crux regularly meets with Government ministers to make sure that change happens as quickly as possible.

However, we need to survive and grow in the meantime and for that we need your financial support. Smart communities need smart news. Positive, fair and tough at the same time. That’s the balance we seek.

Please subscribe today to support our work. The value we provide is online every day and we want to see that stay free and expand to a more sustainable business model.

Here’s the link. You can cancel any time, decide how much to pay and how often. If you are already a subscriber and want to forward this email to your friends and family we’d be very grateful.

I am here to personally help with any issues around starting, pausing or even increasing your financial support. Email me direct on [email protected]

Thank you!

Subscribe today.

Advertise today.

Best regards,

Peter Newport,

Managing Editor, Crux.