Help support independent media in Sun Peaks

Reader support goes directly to supporting SPIN’s community journalism, and specifically to support our digital offers such as the weekly e-newsletter, the bimonthly council newsletter and our online reporting. This means everything from paying our journalists, putting funds behind investigative journalism, and the costs of regular site maintenance. In other words, your support directly makes timely, local news possible.

While a subscription is generally the term people associate with paying for media, we don’t utilize this model at SPIN as it means only those who pay for it receive access to our content. At SPIN, we believe everyone should have access to quality local news regardless of their financial situation. If you can afford it, we do ask that you help support our work so the entire community can benefit. As the media industry continues to struggle in Canada, we feel this is the best way of providing sustainable, local news for everyone. Essentially, we don’t call reader support a subscription because Sun Peaks Independent News does not have a paywall.

You get the satisfaction of knowing that you contributed directly to supporting local news and consequently, supporting a healthy democracy and community. All big ideas aside, you also get supporter-only emails, access to annual transparency and impact reports on where your money goes, and when we have them — invites to supporter-only events.

Yes, we are a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO). You can submit receipts in the tax years 2020 to 2024 to claim up to $500 in costs incurred for a subscription to a QCJO. You will then receive a 15% non-refundable credit on the amount paid to a maximum of $75 annually. If you would like a receipt, email brandi@sunpeaksnews.com. (Please note, we do not qualify as not-profit media which is a separate tax benefit.)

All payments are processed through Stripe. Stripe is a PCI Service Provider Level 1 which is the highest grade of payment processing security. All credit card information is encrypted, sent directly to Stripe and is never sent to our website server. This means that we are PCI compliant and any breach of our website won’t result in stolen credit card information. Learn more here.

If you would like to cancel your recurring donation, please login into Stripe here.

If you would like to update your credit card, please login into Stripe here.

You can send an e-transfer to brandi@sunpeaksnews.com. We are set up with direct pay, so no password should be required.

When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, SPIN’s advertising revenue fell by over 90% and community support for local businesses grew. From this we learned that to be resilient, we needed to diversify our business model and secondly, we learned that our community is invested in SPIN and local news. It is not expected for advertising revenue to return to pre-pandemic levels; in addition the population of Sun Peaks is not large enough to support an entirely reader funded model. Therefore, we must continue with this hybrid model.

SPIN has a strong tradition of print publishing which has helped to shape our community for over 20 years. Not all of our readers are online and we want to make sure that we are still reaching them. In addition, there are limited ways for local businesses to reach guests and residents, and they rely on SPIN to help get their messaging to the community. Also, as pointed out in the previous answer, the organization must continue to produce an advertising product as reader support is not enough to completely support the organization.

Get in touch by selecting “Customer Service” on our contact page.