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Decatur, GA – People who think the media is sensationalizing the COVID-19 crisis for profit have a major hole in their theory.

Most media outlets covering the crisis are struggling to survive. Hundreds of journalists are being laid off, including people in the industry I consider dear friends. It’s going to be an extinction-level event for publications that already were on the edge of collapse.

Decaturish isn’t immune to the financial pressures. Our revenues in April were down more than 100 percent from April of last year. The weekend the COVID-19 crisis became real for most of us — the weekend of March 14, right after all the schools closed — we had to pull half of our ads down from our site because they were advertising local events and places where people gather. (Thank God the advertisers didn’t ask for a refund. We will definitely make it up to them whenever things get back to normal.)

But our financial supporters stepped in and I’m happy to report we recently surpassed 1,000 paying supporters and we now have 1,040. That means 1,040 people, your friends and neighbors, are giving as little as $3 to keep our operations going during this challenging time.

Our base of supporters has not only allowed us to continue operating, but it’s also allowed us to continue paying local freelancers to cover more stories for us. If you’ve enjoyed the work of Cathi Harris, Logan Ritchie, Zoe Seiler, Dean Hesse, Sara Amis, Mary Margaret Stewart and Ellie Ritter (among others), that’s your supporter dollars at work. If you like coverage of local meetings and elections or profiles of interesting people and businesses, that’s your supporter dollars at work, too.

Your money keeps the site doing what it does best, telling the stories of your community. It keeps us from having to depend solely on advertising (we still love you, advertisers!) and keeps us from sticking our news behind a paywall.

If you’re in a giving mood today – it’s #GivingNewsDay after all – and you value what we do, please consider becoming a paying supporter. And if you aren’t a local reader and want to do something good today, support your local newspaper. They need your help. Badly.

Local news is more vital than ever as we head into a busy election season and continue to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic. If you are able to support us, please do so and tell a friend.

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Thank you for supporting Decaturish.com!

PLEASE NOTE: Decaturish is not a 501-c-3 organization. Decaturish.com is online-only. We don’t have a print edition at this time. Paying to support Decaturish is not the same thing as signing up for the daily email generated by the Decaturish.com RSS feed. That email shows you the stories published since you received the last email. The daily email is free to everyone. If you aren’t getting that email, you can sign up by clicking here.

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Decaturish.com is working to keep your community informed about coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. All of our coverage on this topic can be found at Decaturishscrubs.com. If you appreciate our work on this story, please become a paying supporter. For as little as $3 a month, you can help us keep you in the loop about what your community is doing to stop the spread of COVID-19. To become a supporter, click here. 

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