Dear readers
Two months ago, I wrote a letter announcing the launch of the Berkshire Eagle’s Local Journalism Fund’s 2024 campaign. As always, you responded forcefully.
How to donate to Berkshire Eagle’s Local Journalism Fund
Like many news organizations across the country, both commercial and nonprofit, we at the Berkshire Eagle are looking for ways to expand our comprehensive and in-depth coverage. We partnered with the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation to create the Berkshire Eagle Local Journalism Fund. This is a dedicated philanthropic foundation designed to support the Eagle’s coverage of local issues in health, education, economic development, and arts and culture. Your tax-deductible gift will expand our reach in these important areas.
Support our coverage of economic development, arts and culture, health and education by donating to the Local Journalism Fund.
donate
Would you like to send a check? Please write the fund name “Berkshire Eagle Local Journalism Fund” in the memo line of the check made payable to the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation and mail it to: Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, 800 North Main St., Sheffield, MA 01257-9503.
To donate online, visit berkshireeagle.com/donate. Or scan the QR code with your phone’s camera to make a donation.
The Berkshire Eagle Local Journalism Fund is an endowment of the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation.
Thanks to your generosity and two special gifts, we are proud to have reached last year’s total and come very close to reaching this year’s campaign’s unannounced goal of $150,000. The Local Journalism Fund’s 2024 campaign ends in two weeks. So, if you haven’t donated yet and would like to, it’s not too late to add your name to the 321 contributors who will be recognized once the campaign ends.
The Local Journalism Fund, which we partner with the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, is designed to support reporting in four distinct areas of local news: health, education, economic development, and arts and culture. . But donations to the Local Journalism Fund indirectly strengthen the Eagle newsroom as a whole.
Our newsrooms do a great job of reporting local news, but we’re not very good at speaking our minds. Indeed, that’s one of the reasons I respect them so much.
Two weeks ago, the New England Newspaper Writers Association awarded the Berkshire Eagle’s weekday edition the Newspaper of the Year award and named the weekend edition runner-up for the Sunday Newspaper of the Year award.
The founding goal of The Eagle’s current ownership is to make it America’s premier community newspaper, and this year it won Newspaper of the Year in New England for an unprecedented seventh consecutive year.
The Eagle’s future success is tied to local news coverage. That’s what our readers want and demand. For us, providing quality local news coverage to the Berkshires for events such as the Vice President’s visit is the Eagle’s most expensive but most important aspect.
The good news is that with your continued generous support, we are moving towards our ultimate goal of delivering the best local newspapers and websites in the nation. The not-so-good news is that, like other newspapers, it is facing a decline in print revenue. Fortunately, the declines we sustain are not as dramatic as the national average, and the Local Journalism Fund will help close this revenue gap.
I’m sure you’ve seen many articles about local newspapers going out of print or going out of print. You can rest assured that The Eagle is durable and built to last for decades. Your generous donation will ensure that the award-winning quality of The Eagle is maintained and enhanced for years to come.
We are proud to announce the awards won by our staff. We also humbly ask that you please donate or make another donation to the Local Journalism Fund.
Thank you for supporting quality local journalism. Now, more than ever, it’s important.
