I warned you it was coming, and here it is, the big “ask”.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter, Google, cable television, or even the Keweenaw Report I don’t make any money from you simply reading my work. I’m happy you do read it—that’s why I write it—but my financial runway for Late Edition isn’t endless. I put a lot of time into it, and I don’t have any left to work more hours at my “day job”.

If I’m going to keep producing the product that I have for the last two weeks (and better!) while also trying to build the nonprofit news source, I’m going to need financial support. Otherwise, I’ll need to shelve Late Edition soon to find a paying job, or at least take more hours at the part-time job I’m already working.

That said, I’m not looking for you to empty your wallet, or to fund me indefinitely.

Firstly, Late Edition is only going to exist like it does until the nonprofit is formed to supplant it. I hope to be leading, or at least having a major role in, that newsroom. As such, I’ll be devoting my efforts there rather than Late Edition at that time. When that happens, I’ll probably close the Patreon page entirely, and Late Edition will revert to being the blog-like outlet it was before I resigned my previous job.

Secondly, I’m keeping Late Edition’s weekly newsletter free. Like I said before, I want you to read what I write, otherwise I wouldn’t write it. If you choose to become a patron, I’m pulling together some extras for you.

I made three subscription tiers on Patreon; $3, $14, and $50 per month. I 100% expect most of you to only be interested in the $3/month “Sustaining Patron” tier. That’s great! I think that’s a fair amount for a digitally-delivered, weekly product like mine, that includes unique interviews and visualizations. Since that product is going to stay free, I’ve decide that if you subscribe at that first level, I’ll give you access to some of my “primary sources” before the week’s newsletter comes out. By that I mean public documents, data and recordings (and maybe photos someday) that I have that will be used in what I’m writing that week. Right now, five court filings surrounding the Café Rosetta case are available to all my Patrons on my page. They’ll be available to everyone after this week’s newsletter publishes on Sunday, but none of my patrons need to wait.

There are extra perks for the higher tiers, but I’ll let you read about those on the Patreon page itself. I also have some ideas for adding more value to each tier, but I don’t want to commit to anything just yet, until I can claim some time back from organizing and working my “day job”.

Click here to visit my Patreon page, and support my work.

And most of all, thank you for reading.