Seven ways you can support Planet Princeton’s reporting

Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading Planet Princeton. I have been working as hard as I can over the last few weeks to make sure you have the local information you need during the coronavirus pandemic.

As you know as a reader of Planet Princeton, an independent, nonpartisan press is a critical force for our democracy and our society. As recent events have shown, local news matters now more than ever.

Many readers have reached out asking how they can help Planet Princeton cover the news during this difficult time. You can help support Planet Princeton in several ways.

  1. Send us your news tips. Email editor @ planetprinceton.com or text us at 609-375-8920.
  2. Send us your photos and videos. Please send photos as jpegs no larger than 500KB. Don’t forget to include a caption and photo credit. Videos should be links to your original work on Youtube or Vimeo that we can embed.
  3. Write a post or story for us that would be of interest to the local community (no business or non-profit self-promotion, please.)
  4. Share. Tell your friends about our site, share story links, and share our social media posts.
  5. Sign up for our newsletter https://planetprinceton.com/newsletter/
  6. Join our Facebook group, where community members share tips and recommendations. https://www.facebook.com/groups/princetonnj/
  7. Become a subscribing member. https://bit.ly/39bil4D

Planet Princeton is an independent local news website. It is not owned by a newspaper company or a hedge fund. We depend on a mix of revenue sources to support our reporting. Those sources include ads and voluntary subscriptions. We don’t have a paywall yet, and we hope we won’t have to do so. We believe news should be accessible to all, regardless of the ability to pay. We do original reporting, community stories, and investigative news.

Costs have risen sharply the last few weeks as Planet Princeton’s website traffic has spiked. In the last month, our website had had more than 189,000 unique visitors and more than 1.5 million page views. The boost in traffic has also increased our technology costs substantially. We had to upgrade our server and other technology to handle all the extra traffic, and those costs are now about $1,200 a month. Anything you can do to help us cover those costs and our reporting is appreciated.

More than 450 Princeton area residents are voluntary subscribers to Planet Princeton. Without those readers, we would not exist today. Subscribers can pay what they choose on a one-time, yearly or monthly basis. For as little as $5 a month, you can support local news in a meaningful way. Every subscription counts. By becoming a subscribing member, you’ll help Planet Princeton continue to deliver the accurate, timely, informative local journalism our community depends on. You can become a voluntary subscriber here: https://bit.ly/39bil4D, or by mailing a check to Princeton Community Media, P.O. Box 423, Princeton, NJ 08542.

Thanks for all the ways you support Planet Princeton’s work,

Krystal