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Like many news outlets reeling from the coronavirus pandemic's financial fallout, the Southwest Journal has been hard hit at a time when accurate information and detailed reporting are more critical than ever.
For the past three decades, we've delivered free community news to your homes and businesses because everyone deserves access to professional, unbiased journalism. We believe community newspapers are one of the basic building blocks of a democratic society - a space where citizens can debate ideas and grapple with facts and check what they read against what they see.
We take pride in offering the most comprehensive coverage of Southwest businesses, neighborhoods, schools and parks. Our stories let you know who's running for office in your local election and who's launching a new pizza shop on your block, while our advertising space showcases competent roofers, remodelers, realtors and plumbers, among many others.
In recent weeks, we've been reporting on the pandemic's local impact - on how elected leaders, doctors, schoolteachers, small business owners and laid-off workers are grappling with a suddenly altered landscape.
And in the tumultuous months ahead, we promise to do everything we can to keep telling the essential stories of Southwest Minneapolis.
But the Southwest Journal is currently facing unprecedented challenges. In normal times, our paper is supported almost wholly by advertising from local restaurants, shops, service providers and other small businesses. While our advertisers have been deeply sympathetic, they are facing challenges of their own. Their budgets are being tightened, some have been compelled to close, and all are making difficult decisions against a backdrop of historic uncertainty.
As a result, our business model has been upended, and we've been forced to lay off three full-time staff members, cut pages from our print edition and temporarily suspend the columns of longtime freelancers.
The Southwest Journal is an independent, family-owned business that was launched in the Linden Hills kitchen of co-publishers Terry Gahan and Janis Hall in 1990. In our 30 years of serving Southwest Minneapolis, we've never before asked readers for financial support.
But today is different. We need your help.
If reading our paper has made your life in Southwest a richer, more meaningful experience, we hope you'll consider supporting the work we do in shaping and informing our community.
Please support us with a donation in any amount you are able.
Over the years, our staff has won dozens of statewide awards for general reporting, feature stories, coverage of social issues, opinion columns and well-executed editorial designs. Our mission statement, first written in 1995, still guides us:
Our company exists to serve our community with integrity by producing a reliable, professional newspaper, the Southwest Journal. We are committed to fairness, teamwork and openness to new ideas.
In that spirit, we are asking our readers to contribute what you are able to help us continue publishing.
Whether or not you are able to contribute financially, you can help us spread the word about this donation drive by posting on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Nextdoor and by reaching out via email to friends and neighbors. You can also send us a note with your comments, questions, compliments or critiques to feedback@swjournal.com. If you would like to purchase an ad for your business or promote a service you offer, you can email sales@mnpubs.com.
We exist to serve our community and appreciate your support in any form.
We prefer donations via credit card but will also gladly accept checks made out to the Southwest Journal and mailed to us at:
Southwest Journal
1115 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
Thank you.
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