In the wake of the Village Voice ending its print edition, Gothamist and DNAinfo being suddenly shuttered by an anti-union billionaire, and the ad-based financial model for local media generally failing in the face of Facebook, Google and other factors, one local news site has put out a plea for your help. BKLYNER, a composite of former neighborhood blogs including Park Slope Stoop, Bensonhurst Bean, Fort Greene Focus, and Ditmas Park Corner, has published a formal request for help from the community which reaps its reporting.
“Local newspapers are dying, and local news sites are shuttering every week,” publisher Liena Zagare wrote in an article published yesterday, “I must be frank in telling you that BKLYNER may not be far behind.”
In order to stay alive, Zagare says BKLYNER needs, “3,000 subscribers – less than 1% of our readers – to support us at $5/month. If we do not reach this number, we will stop publishing at the end of December.”
There are also community subscription options available for $24.99/year and $1.99/month. “Before we lose our neighborhood news source, we want to give you an opportunity to help support it,” the article states.