Local news is a tough business, especially in 2024.
The recent, unfortunate closure of DCist illustrates how fragile of a thing it is. ARLnow has sustained our commitment to online-only local news for 14 years thanks to dogged editorial and business teams — and conservative budgeting.
That means that we don’t hire more reporters than our business model can support. While that’s good for long-term sustainability, it means we can’t quite do all of the local reporting we would like based on ad revenue alone.
That’s where the ARLnow Press Club comes in. Somewhat like a college athletics booster program, members of the Press Club provide extra funds that allow us to go above and beyond. For instance, the deeply reported article that’s set to publish after this post was only possible thanks to member support.
Growing our membership base substantially would allow us to fund reporting resources for more coverage of court cases, small local businesses and nonprofits, and other things that our current budget cannot quite support. We do some of that today, but want to do more.
Most Press Club members tell us they sign up primarily to support the site. But they also appreciate a notable membership perk: the daily “Early Morning Notes” email with a preview of the coming day’s coverage.
Sign up for the ARLnow Press Club here. Thank you, Arlington, for your continued support of local news!