“When there’s no one there to tell the story, there’s no accountability.”
This simple phrase is one of the main reasons journalism is essential to Canadian democracy and Canadian communities.
Without it, most of us would never know how votes went on important issues or who we might be voting for at election time.
And while The Lake Report is breaking the trend and still able to employ a small staff, most traditional news agencies are suffering these days.
Today, there are more issues to cover than ever in our growing town. More stories of all kinds still to be told. And there’s less money to hire people to cover it.
At The Lake Report, we are looking to the future and want to ensure that this publication remains around to tell those stories for years to come, and as our town doubles its population.
So, we are kicking off a major “Pledge It” campaign and asking the community to invest in NOTL news.
Readers and supporters can now visit our website to pledge an annually recurring donation to support this newspaper, its staff and the journalism we create.
Pledges can be anywhere from $100 a year to $10,000 a year and every cent will be put to good use by supporting news that matters, journalists who care and an editorial team that stands up to the powers that be, when necessary.
Another part of the campaign is encouraging you to consider bequeathing donations to The Lake Report.
As we all age, most of us want to leave the world a better place.
It’s hard to imagine a more noble cause than supporting the basic tenets of democracy — a free and unfettered press.
Our promise to you: We will use 100 per cent of donations received to continue producing some of Canada’s finest community journalism.
Our readers know this publication has, since 2020, garnered more news awards than any media organization in the country, and outlasted two other newspapers in town.
We are the only active newspaper Niagara-on-the-Lake has — and this is a town where the first newspaper in Ontario was published.
For all these reasons, we are asking you to Pledge It and help us continue to grow and thrive.
Our initial plan would be to use donations to hire more staff to cover more issues and produce more award-winning journalism.
Frankly, there is simply too much happening for our small team to do it all right now.
But we would love to be able to bring all the news that matters to you.
Our secondary plan is to update our website (already honoured as one of the best in the province) and we hope to develop a Lake Report app.
We couldn’t be where we are now without the support of the businesses in our community who advertise with us — and the readers who patronize those businesses and read our paper.
We are here for the long term and hope you will consider supporting our endeavours.
You can “Pledge It” by going online to lakereport.ca/donate-today.