Category: Announcements || By

Since last week's announcement, a couple of people have called or emailed to ask questions, mainly: "Are you serious?"

Hell yes, I'm serious. We intend to pay freelance reporters for covering events in and around McKeesport. Ads will also be placed on Craiglist and elsewhere.

The other questions have been:

• Why? Well, because as a member of the National Writers' Union, I don't think people should write for free.
  
  But on a less altruistic level, I think people will do better work if they're paid instead of volunteering.


• How much? Crummy, frankly --- on the order of $25 per piece, maybe $50 for an article that requires more work. It's a pittance. We don't have any more money than that.


• Where are you getting the money? Some meager advertising revenues and Amazon.com click referrals have generated between $400 and $500 over the past year. Obviously, that's not going to last long, but it's a start.
  
  In January, we will also begin an ongoing fund drive. We have about 2,100 regular readers; if each kicked in 50 cents, we'd have no problem raising $1,000. With the help of our treasurer, I'll also do a financial report so anyone who wants to donate can see where the money came from in 2009, and where it went; we've got nothing to hide.


• Why would anyone give you money? On my desk is a partly completed application for tax-exempt status from the Internal Revenue Service. If it's approved sometime in 2010, contributions will become tax deductible. Also, we accept banner advertising at very reasonable rates (however, advertising is not tax-deductible as a charitable contribution).


• Are you trying to compete with the Daily News? Certainly not. I think I have a pretty good relationship with the Daily News. And frankly, they can blow us into the weeds on any given day.
  
  But I've also noticed that if three people (myself, the News and the P-G) all attend the same event, we often come away with three completely different stories. I think those kinds of different perspectives are needed, and I don't see any thing else stepping in to fill the void.

Finally, someone (Alert Reader Officer Jim) wants to know: "Dude, Twitter? Really? What's that about?" We're just trying to reach the yoot market, dude.