From September through February I heard about the importance of saving Indian Country Today. So many people across Indian Country had the same idea: What if … What if we all contribute? What if we step up to make certain Indian Country has solid, accurate, fair reporting? What’s it worth to save a voice, a national media platform for Indian concerns?
Yes. Yes. And a lot — or a few tax deductible dollars if we do it together.
We are building the new Indian Country Today on the public media model. We will have some advertising but most of our resources will come from members and non-profits. We need you.
We thought we would start this process with some fun. We are launching a membership drive and an auction. The membership drive will solicit help from our “members” as $100 Founding Members, $500 Sustaining Members, and $1,000 for Premier Members. Unlike public media we don’t have nifty gifts as a thank you. No t-shirts. No coffee mugs. Just a better news report. We want to use the money to build our news operation, a multimedia report about what’s going on across Indian Country. We’ll stretch your dollars by partnering with other organizations (and amplify our reporting by letting others repurpose our editorial content). We will serve.
To get us started we are hosting an auction: Who ever bids the most will be designated Founding Member 001. We will honor them in ICT and thank them across social media. (And if your bid is not the most … we are still happy to accept your donation.) To place your bid email general@indiancountrytoday.com.
If you can’t afford $100 send us what you can. This is important and we don’t want to leave anyone out. (As we get going we plan on a monthly membership plan that will cost only $10 a month … something to think about.)
Indian Country Today is going to be a new kind of journalism (just wait until you see the platform we are building) and we can use your help to get us launched. Thank you so much.
Mark Trahant, editor, Indian Country Today