Welcome to all of our new readers, and a friendly hello to all of our long time followers. We’re happy to see you here, although I know many of you have found our website as a result of a recent, and potentially scary, wildfire experience.
The stress of this summer’s Embleton Mountain wildfire was intense, especially on the heels of 1.5 years of pandemic conditions. As a community volunteer, business owner and homeowner, I both felt and witnessed what many of our readers experienced. But despite the stress and anxiety of the situation, it was validating to hear the work we were doing at SPIN helped people.
“Thanks for the update! You’re doing a fantastic job of letting us know what’s happening on a daily basis.”
“I really appreciate the in-depth story, great job reporting and writing.”
“This is the most well written piece of local news I’ve read in a long time. Thank you for some real journalism.”
These were just a few of the comments we received. This is the double edged reality of being a news organization—sometimes we’re of the most value when things are going wrong. It can feel icky, but we also recognize how important trusted information is during a crisis.
Our recent web stats back this up. In July, our visitors were up 200 per cent over the same month last year. Our social media engagement was off the charts as we shared updated information, profiled community members and outlined the ongoing impact related to the wildfire. To me, these numbers underscore the importance of our digital reporting efforts and tells me we need to work to make this a sustainable component of SPIN. And to be frank, the resources it requires outweigh what we have.
Like all Sun Peaks businesses, we are in a challenging phase of transition. As federal wage subsidies, grants and other supports tap out, and with traditional revenue streams still far below pre-pandemic levels, the way forward is unclear. Especially as we’re quickly coming up on a slower period for the resort. Internally we’re making adjustments where we can but the shift to a sustainable hybrid revenue model has not been easy and we need our continued readers’ help to make it possible.
With all the transitions, we need to raise $10,000 on top of our existing memberships. If you would like to help more with a one-time contribution towards our goal, you will be helping us continue having the capacity to deliver the digital news you need for the rest of the wildfire season and upcoming shoulder season. As always, thank you for believing in our mission!
I’ve done the math—if just over one per cent of our readers gave $15 each, we could easily hit our goal and continue having the capacity to deliver the digital news you need for the rest of the wildfire season and upcoming shoulder season. (You can put in a custom amount on our support page). Can you help?
Our hearts go out to everyone in the province dealing with the ongoing wildfire situation. We are so grateful for the support we felt from our friends, neighbours and community. Stay safe out there.
Help us bring you more local news
SPIN has been able to serve Sun Peaks as its sole news source for over 20 years thanks to the overwhelming support of our community. Join over 126 of your neighbours and become a monthly or yearly member so that we can continue to regularly publish the digital newsletters and stories our readers rely on.
